There's Something About You That's Different
by alibi2014
Summary: There's more to the story than a single rose. A lot more. KFxJinx for the 100 Situations community on LJ.
1. Tired

**This is for the 100 Situations community on LJ. I chose Table 1, and the pairing is Kid FlashxJinx, since I've been sort of obsessed with Jinx after deciding to be her for Halloween. The chapters will be, unless otherwise specified, unrelated, and will differ in genre and potentially in KFxJ relationship and rating. Chapter-specific notes will come at the beginning of chapters as needed. And if you've got any requests, ideas, or suggestions for something you want to see happen, please don't be afraid to let me know!**

**Disclaimer: I almost forgot this! But it doesn't change the fact that I don't own anything.**

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**001: Tired**

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It was the one problem Jinx had with Kid Flash: He was _never_ tired. 

Now, to be fair, the word "never" was a little of an overstatement; it wasn't like Kid Flash had not once in his life been nor ever would be tired, but it was so rare to see him slow down- no pun intended- that the probability of seeing him worn out was about the same as that of Jinx braiding her hair- there was a slight possibility, but not enough to get your hopes up.

Jinx didn't know if it had something to do with his super-speed abilities or if it was simply the fact that Wally West had endless amounts of energy, but whatever the reason, there it was. And sometimes it drove Jinx crazy.

"Kid Flash, can we _please_ go home now?"

This was one of those times.

Said Kid turned around so that he was walking backwards down the sidewalk and facing her. A broad smile plastered on his face, he shook his head. "Nope."

Jinx groaned. "Why not?"

"It's not even late."

"It's half past midnight!" Jinx exclaimed, opening her palms upward as if to further her point by emphasizing the inky blackness of the sky. The streets around them were silent and empty, a strange juxtaposition to the loud and onlooker-crowded burglary they'd apprehended a few blocks away just twenty minutes ago. After the thieves had been handed over to the police, Jinx had turned to go back in the direction of Kid Flash's apartment, but he had had other ideas, and had led her in the completely opposite direction. The completely opposite direction that they were still aimlessly wandering along now.

Kid Flash, continuing to walk backwards, replied, "Well, I'm not tired."

"You're _never_ tired!"

He shrugged. "So?"

"So, _I'm_ tired!"

Kid Flash pursed his lips and nodded slowly. Then he turned so he was facing forward and said, "We need to get you some coffee."

Rolling her eyes, Jinx responded, "The sooner I get my own means of transportation and don't have to rely on_ you _to get me home every night, the better."

"I want to do something fun," Kid Flash said, ignoring her previous statement. "What do you want to do?" Before Jinx could open her mouth, he added, "Other than go home, of course."

Jinx put her face in her hands and stopped walking. "Wally…"

"Have you ever been to the beach at night? It's so peaceful there when it's empty. Come on, it's only a few miles that way."

"_Wally…_"

"You can see the stars really clearly from the beach. I think it has something to do with not being near buildings with lights on, but if that's the case then-"

"_Wally!_"

Finally Kid Flash stopped and turned around, and when he saw Jinx with her face in her hands and her shoulders shaking he thought for a moment she was crying, until she lifted her gaze to him. There were indeed tears running down her face, but they were accompanied by great peals of laughter.

Finally, after taking a moment to compose herself and finding her breath, Jinx managed to speak. "Are you even _more_ hyper at twelve-thirty in the morning?"

Kid Flash laughed and made his way back towards her. "Come on," he said, putting on arm around her waist. "Let's get you home."

But Jinx just smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder. "No," she said. "The beach sounds nice."


	2. Back Alley

**First, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I honestly never expected to get six reviews for the first chapter, and I really appreciate all of you who took the time to do so. Second, um, let's see... Let's just skip straight to the disclaimer, shall we?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.**

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**002: Back Alley**

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Jinx had never been a follower. Ever. 

From the moment she'd been abandoned at age seven, Jinx had made her own way in the world. At first she'd been scared and unsure of how to fend for herself, but within weeks the small, pink-haired girl had learned the ropes of survival. Pick pocketing had come easily to her, and soon she'd moved onto bigger things, like setting up sting operations with the other homeless kids she met.

Organizing these crimes, Jinx found herself in a constant leader position, not because no one else cared for the job, but because Jinx wouldn't _let _anyone else take the job. The way Jinx saw it, standing idly by while someone else directed what she would do was suicide, and would probably result in a more painful outcome than the occasional day of going hungry. Also, and almost more importantly, Jinx had absolutely no interest in getting pushed around, and if the other kids didn't like it, then they could find another crowd to hang with. Ultimately, if the plan hadn't come directly from Jinx's mind, and hadn't been carried out to the letter, there was no way she was going to do it.

At eleven years old Jinx heard about the HIVE Academy. By that time Jinx had matured enough to realize that there was still much for her to learn, and many people to learn from. Plus, if there was a place where she could not only learn to perfect her powers and possibly gain respect, but also receive meals and a bed, she figured she might as well check it out. Jinx hadn't even been that set on attending until she'd been told they wouldn't accept her.

It was something about too many students, or not enough teachers, or Jinx's powers being too ordinary, but for whatever the reason the HIVE Headmistress had told her to get lost. And Jinx, who had never asked anyone for anything before, and therefore had never been turned down before, was angry. But angry doesn't mean resigned, and like her days on the streets Jinx had no intentions of taking no for an answer. That evening she waited outside the Academy until dark, and when finally the Headmistress appeared in the doorway Jinx mustered all the strength she had to send a massive hex flying at the wall not two inches from the gray-haired woman. The Headmistress took one look at Jinx's handiwork, and without changing her expression told Jinx to be at the Academy tomorrow morning at nine sharp for her first classes.

From that point on things had gone well. Very well. Well to the point that by the time she was fourteen she was the head of the top graduating class in the Academy, and even after getting sent back for failing her final exam, Jinx found new ways to excel and to bend the system to fit her needs. During her years at the Academy, Jinx learned to design her own attack patterns, to add her own twist to predetermined ones, and to argue her way out of almost any situation. Easily one of the most determined and unwavering students, when finally she graduated and formed the HIVE Five Jinx handpicked her team, turning down several students who asked to join, and even coercing a few who didn't want to. In the end, though her team looked to be unruly and unsynchronized, in reality the eclectic mix of people was just what she was looking for. It was too bad that she happened to choose the five people who were about as uncooperative as she was smart.

Before Jinx knew it, her team was falling apart around her, tossing aside her commands like trash, and throwing all her hard work back in her face. It was an evening after a particularly vexing day with her team that Jinx started to seriously rethink her lifestyle, and the thought suddenly flashed across her mind that it didn't matter which side of the law she was on as long as she was making her own decisions.

And because of this realization that her team was quickly destroying everything she'd worked so hard to achieve and that something would have to change, Kid Flash's appearance and remarks had been startling to the point that she wasn't entirely sure they were coincidental. But although Kid Flash said nothing to her that she hadn't already thought of, Jinx had an image to maintain, and not even to others, but to herself. Because Jinx had never been a follower.

Ever.

So even though it would have been easy to smile and take Kid Flash's hand and walk off into the sunset, even though the idea of turning hero had already crossed her mind, even though Jinx knew her life as a villain was one way or another coming to a close, she couldn't go with him. Not yet. Not just like that. Instead, she turned the other way, walked down the back alley, and, just like all the other times her life had to change, made the decision for herself.


	3. Sunrise

**First thing's first: I hope you all had a great Halloween! I dressed up as Jinx (and let me tell you, her hair is _tough_) and ran around saying Trigon's prophecy with my brother. Good times...**

**This chapter can hypothetically be connected to last chapter, but as this chapter has a very feeling I tend not to think of it that way. I don't know; however you want to look at it is fine with me. Also, a link to the painting mentioned here can be found if you do a google image search for "Monet sunrise."**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or Monet.**

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**003: Sunrise**

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_It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly._

_-Claude Monet_

They are common, unassuming phrases: _I have no where to go! I have nothing to do!_ Everyone makes the complaints, and they make them without any real basis. Because no matter what, there is _always_ somewhere to go. There is _always_ something to do, and there is _always_ someone to do it with. Always. Except, of course, for the few times when there aren't. And Jinx was learning this the hard way.

It wasn't like she could just go back to her Tower; the security codes had surely been changed by now. And she certainly didn't want to chance running into one of her team- _ex_-teammates. And, having been a villain for as long as she could remember, even walking around town required a wardrobe change, as she had absolutely no desire to get picked up by the police.

Jinx had literally no where to go and nothing to do.

Most days she occupied herself with walking around the city, trying to clear her head, or organize her thoughts, or simply not think at all. She'd taken an abandoned denim jacket from a park bench the first evening, and had managed to lift a pair of tennis shoes from a store in the mall when no one was looking the next day. It wasn't that she was craving the adrenaline that came with thievery; it was that nights in Jump City were cold, and boots got uncomfortable after a while. And, as an added bonus, after she'd taken her hair down her new outfit provided the anonymity that was a necessity. But even anonymity couldn't solve all her problems.

Today had been a bad day. Jinx wasn't even sure why. She couldn't remember how long it had been since she'd gone AWOL, but it felt like forever since she'd had a place to sleep, since she'd had someone to talk to, since she knew who she was. Jinx could feel something dark and heavy seeping through her, and it wasn't just the cold she had picked up recently. It was something that made her feel tired, and lonely, and lost.

And now, somehow, Jinx found herself standing in the Jump City Art Museum, having snuck in a side door to avoid paying the five-dollar entrance fee. She held a brochure on the featured Monet exhibit loosely in her hands as she stared blankly at the painting in front of her.

As she let her eyes wander over the soft colors of the water and sky, Jinx realized for the first time that she hadn't held a paint brush in her hand since she'd left her team. The thought, and the loss she suddenly felt, along with all of the other convoluted emotions and questioning she was experiencing, finally popped the bubble that had been keeping her from crumbling. Jinx's shoulders sagged, and tears pooled in her eyes.

"Hey."

Jinx recognized his voice, would have recognized the warm, casual tone anywhere, but didn't answer him.

"You look nice with you hair down."

The complement made Jinx uncomfortable for some reason, as if he was only interested in the part of her that wasn't really her.

"Do you come here often?"

At first she thought he was teasing her, and the thought would have filled her with rage if she'd had any energy left. But then she realized he was serious.

Jinx shook her head softly. She had never been to a museum before in her life. At least, not to look at the art.

He continued, "I've always loved Monet. His paintings instill such calm, you know?"

Jinx shrugged half-heartedly.

He was silent for a moment, and Jinx thought he had gone, and wasn't sure whether his absence made her feel better or worse, until then-

"Do you miss painting?"

The questioned startled her, and for some reason she answered. "Yes." She twisted the brochure uneasily in her hands.

Again he was quiet, and then he said, "They say painting is a good way to get your feelings out."

His words only made her feel worse, and Jinx lowered her face and covered it with her hands. "I wish you would leave me alone," she whispered. "Can't you just go?"

"Jinx." His hand on her shoulder made her look up, and she was surprised to see him in civilian clothes, surprised to see him without his mask on. "I sort of got you into this whole mess. I'm not going to just leave you here all alone."

Kid Flash held her gaze for a moment before she broke her eyes away and turned back to the painting. A moment later she said, "I've always hated Monet."

A small, cautious smile on his lips, Kid Flash asked, "Why?"

"Because his paintings instill such calm." She bit her lip. "Life is _never_ that calm."

The smile dropped from Kid Flash's face. "Will you let me help you make your life calm?"

Jinx studied the painting, the man pushing his little boat among the waves, the sunrise bestowing just a sliver of light onto the otherwise dark waters. Wasn't that man worried the waves might start churning and make his boat capsize? Didn't he worry that a storm might come and cover up the sun? Wasn't he worried he'd never find his way back home?

Jinx turned suddenly to look at Kid Flash, and when she did so he was standing right beside her. Jinx's eyebrows were raised and her eyes wide in uncertainty and seriousness.

"You _have_ to help me," she whispered.

Kid Flash smiled softly and took one of her hands in his, squeezing it gently.

"I promise."

Jinx nodded slightly, and smiled, a weight having suddenly lifted off her shoulders.

They walked towards the exit together, and when they were gone, the room was empty, save for the single painting of the boat in the ocean with the sun lighting the way.


	4. Late

**I am _so sorry_ it's taken me so long to update. It was really a mix of three reasons: 1) School has been insanely busy lately, and there've been a ton of other things I've had to do as well. 2) I hurt my wrist really badly two weeks ago, and it was pretty hard to type. Want to know how I hurt it...? By clapping too much at a concert. Yes. Talk about irony. But it was a really good concert! And most importantly, 3) For unknown reasons I had a _huge_ amount of difficulty figuring out what to do with this prompt. I'm still not completely happy with what I have, but I figure you guys have waited long enough and I don't think more time is going to help much. Luckily I already have an idea for the next prompt, so that should be up much sooner.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. Shock. **

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**004: Late**

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It wasn't that Jinx didn't believe Kid Flash _could_ be serious. It was just that she had yet to really _see_ it. 

It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, that Kid Flash was seldom caught in a deep state of thought or with a look of great purpose in his eyes. Some people were always solemn and determined, while others _never_ let a deep thought get in the way of their fun. Kid Flash fit somewhere in the middle: He knew there were some instances when you needed to buckle down and get serious, but in general he preferred living life to the fullest and shrugging annoyances off rather than letting them weigh him down. It was a rather nice way to live, actually.

Even when he was fighting he maintained a calm exterior- that is, Jinx thought he did, as he never slowed down enough for her to see- and a stream of witty remarks constantly sprang from his lips. It helped that since joining him the pair had not yet faced a truly evil villain- someone to make you wonder at how a person like that was allowed to live and made you clench your jaw and become blind to everything in the world but the need to overcome them. The Brotherhood of Evil aside, the criminals they faced were nothing to get too concerned about, and nothing to make Kid Flash agonize over.

So the first time Jinx saw Kid Flash lose his lighthearted demeanor and actually put on the face that she so associated with superheroes, she was completely taken aback.

It had started as a normal call. An armed and masked trio had made their way into a bank and, brandishing their weapons, had demanded the safes be opened and the contents given to them. When the bank manager stalled one of the gunmen fired his gun into the ceiling, which is never a good idea when there are an abundance of heroes in your town. The shot was loud enough, or maybe the day was just quiet enough, that Kid Flash and Jinx heard it from several blocks away. They arrived at the scene moments later.

"Ooh, a bank robbery," Kid Flash said to Jinx as they entered the building, speaking loudly enough so that the gunmen and citizens alike could hear him. He dashed to one of the gunmen, plucked the gun out of his hand, and sped back to Jinx. "You don't see many of those anymore."

Jinx smirked. "So cliché."

Kid Flash shook his head sorrowfully, and consented, "So cliché."

In that moment one of the gunmen who still retained his weapon seemed to regain his senses. He raised his gun at the two heroes and calmly stated, "You two make one more move and I'll shoot."

Jinx's hands started glowing a soft pink. "Drop it," she said coldly.

"Maybe you didn't understand me," the gunman replied unemotionally, "so I'll make myself clear." He aimed his gun to the space between Jinx and Kid Flash and squeezed the trigger. A bullet zoomed between them and crashed out the glass doors behind them. "Next time I won't be hitting air."

Kid Flash rolled his eyes and grinned at Jinx. "Yeah, I'm sure not. Hey, look behind you."

The gunman narrowed his eyes and started to raise his gun again, but before he could get very far a blur of red and orange had knocked his gun out of his hand, and a barrage of hexes had thrown him back on the ground. Growling, the gunman pushed himself off the floor and launched himself at Jinx, fists brandished. Another blur of red and orange knocked him off his feet for a second time, and he ended up smashing into a wall.

Kid Flash walked up in front of him. "You didn't look behind you." The man muttered a string of obscenities.

Jinx pulled out a pair of plastic handcuffs and made quick work of the man's wrists, while recently arrived policemen handled the other two gunmen. When the man's wrists were safely bound behind his back, Kid Flash lifted the man from the floor by his collar. "Seriously, you should _always_ look behind you."

The gunman just smiled. "You think you're so good. You think you got it all taken care of. Well here's a heads up: I'm not one of those idiot cash register robbers you corner every day. I'm better than that."

Kid Flash turned to Jinx with a smile and sarcastically said, "I think we should believe him."

"Jump City High School," the gunman said offhandedly.

Kid Flash turned back to him.

"There's a bomb in Jump City High School."

Jinx's face darkened. From where Kid Flash was standing she could only see his back, but she thought she saw him stiffen.

"I was going to give an ultimatum," the man continued, a smirk growing on his face. "I was going to give them the location of the bomb if they gave me the money." He shrugged. "Things didn't turn out as planned, huh?"

Jinx jumped when Kid Flash's fist connected with the man's jaw, sending him, again, onto the floor. When she looked up at Kid Flash's face she was shocked to see the coldness of his eyes and the firmness of his jaw. There was no trace of humor in his expression.

"Where is it?" Kid Flash's voice was different than she had heard it before. He sounded serious. He sounded angry. He sounded like the kind of person who would let you know if you didn't give him the kind of answer he wanted.

The gunman spat a small mouthful of blood onto the floor. "It doesn't matter now."

Kid Flash crouched down and lifted the man up by his collar so that their faces were level. "Where _is_ it?"

"It doesn't matter," the gunman repeated. Looking over his shoulder at the clock on the wall behind him, he continued, "You've got approximately three minutes to get to the school and dismantle the explosive. Somehow I don't think even your special super-speed thing is going to help you on this one." He turned and made eye contact with Kid Flash. "Sorry, kid, but you're too late."

Kid Flash looked at the clock. "I'm never too late."

He was out the door before Jinx could blink.

xxx

It turned out that the bomb was hidden in the janitor's closet on the second floor of the school. The head gunman had simply dressed in a janitor's uniform, slipped into the school earlier in the morning, and deposited the fist-sized explosive among the cleaning supplies before making an equally smooth exit. After being given a description of the man, certain students and faculty members had remembered seeing him. No one had thought him to be suspicious.

It had taken Kid Flash a total of two minutes and twelve seconds to make his way to the school, locate, and neutralize the bomb. The majority of that time had been spent searching the school grounds for the device, and figuring out how to safely turn it off. By the time Kid Flash returned to the bank, all three gunmen were being ushered outside into waiting police cars. Jinx was waiting anxiously on the building's front steps when he suddenly appeared beside her.

"A gift for you, Madame." Jinx turned to see Kid Flash, his cheeks slightly flushed from the adrenaline, extending his hand to her. In his palm was a rectangular gunmetal box with a small screen and four tiny, differently colored buttons.

"Is that-?"

Kid Flash handed the box to the passing police captain. "The bomb, yes." As he turned to give his report to the captain, Jinx marveled at how quickly Kid Flash's demeanor had reverted to its usual carefree way. When he shook the captain's hand and turned back to Jinx, she had a curious look on her face.

They started walking down the steps, heading down the street, when he finally and laughingly asked, "What?"

"What happened back there?"

Kid Flash cocked his head to the side and imitated her expression. "What happened back where?"

"Why did you suddenly go all superhero?"

Kid Flash rubbed at his forehead. "Um, that guy put a bomb in a school and was threatening to blow it up. Was it not the proper time to go all superhero, as you call it?"

"I know," Jinx said. "That guy was bad news. I've just… I've never seen you like that before."

"Like what?"

"Like…" Jinx trailed off, searching for the right word.

"Serious? Mad?" Kid Flash offered.

Jinx laughed and nodded. "Yeah. Sort of."

"Well… I never got to go to high school," Kid Flash said. "I got my powers when I was young and didn't make it to high school before I started the superhero thing. I've always sort of regretted that." He paused. "I just didn't like the idea of all those students never getting to finish high school." Kid Flash shrugged, but then continued, the usual spark quickly coming back into his eyes. "Anyway, that's why I got a little fed up back there."

Jinx nodded by way of response. Then she said, "Maybe one day you'll go to college."

Kid Flash laughed. "It's a little late to start thinking about that now."

Jinx touched his shoulder and when he turned his head she held his eyes. "It's never too late."


	5. Son

**I'm tired and college applications will be the death of me. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. But you know what would be funny? If the Titans lived in Washington you could say they lived in DC. Haha. ...well, _I_ thought it was funny.**

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**005: Son**

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Jinx rinsed the last of the shampoo out of her hair and turned off the shower. Gathering a handful of thick pink tresses in one hand, she squeezed the excess water out and then reached behind the shower curtain to pull her bathrobe from a peg on the wall. Jinx wrapped the robe around herself and then stepped out of the tub. She dried her hair briefly with a towel, but left the hair dryer in its place on the counter. Wally had bought it for her after she'd moved in, but Jinx had never liked using hair dryers. Instead she gave her hair one more pat with the towel and then hung the towel back up to let her hair dry on its own. 

Opening the bathroom door and switching off the light, Jinx tied the bathrobe belt tighter around her waist and stepped into the living room. It had bothered Jinx at first that in order to get from the bathroom to the spare bedroom she was currently inhabiting she had to pass through the rest of the apartment, but Wally had done of a pretty good job of steering clear of the living room when he knew she'd be coming out of the shower, especially after Jinx had made it clear she didn't know what the nature of their relationship was yet.

And because of this, Jinx was surprised to see Wally standing at the far end of the living room. And she would have been annoyed, too, if she hadn't immediately realized that something was wrong.

It was in the way Wally was simply standing, one hand on the counter that led into the kitchen and one hand clutching the cordless phone for dear life. It was in the way his posture was rigid, and the way he was looking off into the distance at absolutely nothing. It was in the way he didn't turn to look at her when she opened the bathroom door.

"Wally?" Jinx took a hesitant step towards him, her voice slightly apprehensive. When he didn't respond she took another step forward. "Are you okay?"

"My dad died." Wally's voice was hoarse, the way voices get when trying to hold back tears. Jinx paused, her mouth slightly open as she searched for words. When Wally turned to look at her she could see how hard he was attempting to stay strong. "My mom called. She said he had a heart attack. She said he died instantly. In a flash." Wally swallowed hard and looked away from her. "I hadn't talked to either of them in years."

Jinx started to walk slowly towards him again, and tried to come up with something to say. She'd never lost a parent, but that was only because she'd never known her parents. Jinx bit her lip and tried to imagine that her father had just died from a heart attack, and how she felt about that.

Jinx had never been very good at pretending.

When she stepped beside him Jinx paused again, unsure of what to do. Cautiously, she put a hand lightly on his shoulder.

"Wally? Do you… want to talk about it?"

In response Wally turned and put his arms around her, bathrobe and soaking wet hair and all, and pulled her close. Jinx froze for a moment, but when Wally's tears started making warm rivers on her shoulder she softened her back and put her arms around him.

"I don't want him to be dead," Wally said shakily.

"I know," Jinx said, because in the movies that's always what people said when their friend had lost someone they loved.

"I don't want him to be gone."

Jinx nodded. She didn't say anything when he wordlessly let the phone drop out of his hand onto the floor.

After another minute, Jinx was about to attempt to say something useful when she stopped. Because Jinx realized something. This boy that was crying in her arms was more than someone to be comforted with lines from movies. He was more than a superhero. He was more than Kid Flash. And he was more even than someone Jinx thought she just might have feelings for.

He was a just a boy. He was a boy named Wally West. He was someone's family. And he was someone's son.

Jinx tightened her arms around him. And she didn't speak until she had something meaningful to say.


	6. Hot

**Ugh. And I thought "Late" was hard to write. I wanted to do something different than what "Hot" would usually imply in a romance fic, then I had three false starts with different ideas, and I'm not too happy with how it came out, but I wanted to get something up. And I must apologize again for the delay in this chapter. (If someone wants to PM or email me every so often and remind me I actually made a commitment to _write _it might get me back on track. Seriously.) College stuff and holiday preparations have been holding me hostage. Which reminds me: Happy Hanukkah! Or happy anything else you celebrate!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own TT. **

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**006: Hot**

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_"Ow!"_

Wally waited in case there was more to be heard, but when all there was was silence he stood up, put his work back on his desk, and walked into the living room. And paused.

There, in the middle of the room, was Jinx, standing on a chair with the tips of her first two fingers and thumb from her right hand in her mouth. All around her on the floor were shards of broken glass. Wally wondered momentarily if she'd blown something up with her powers.

"Uh, Jinx?" Stepping carefully around the glass, Wally asked, "What happened?"

Jinx took her hand out of her mouth and held her wrist with her left hand. "That thing is _hot._"

Wally raised his eyebrows. "What thing?"

Pointing to the ceiling above her, Jinx, replied, "The light bulb."

Wally glanced up at the light bulb that protruded from the ceiling, naked right now without its covering. It'd been flickering for a while now, but he hadn't yet gotten around to changing it.

Looking back at Jinx, he smirked. "You know, you're supposed to wait until the light bulb is cool before you try to change it."

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Good thing I know that now." She began to step off the chair, but Wally raised a hand, stopping her.

"Wait there. I'll clean up the glass on the floor."

He dashed off, and an instant later he was back, dustpan and broom in hand. As he was sweeping up the glass, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

"If you burnt yourself before you got the light bulb out of the socket, how is there glass on the floor?"

Jinx sighed, annoyed. "I dropped the replacement bulb when I burnt myself."

Laughing, Wally said, "Ah. I see." He finished clearing away the glass and stood up straight.

Jinx frowned and stepped off the chair, turning and walking to the kitchen. Wally followed behind her and watched as she turned on the cold water, submerging her hand beneath it.

"It doesn't look that bad to me," Wally said, looking at her injured hand. "Just a little red."

"Yeah, well then why don't _you_ go and change the light bulb?"

Wally smiled smugly at her. "Maybe I will." He marched off in search of a new light bulb and Jinx turned back towards her hand, surveying the damage. It wasn't really all that bad- just a little red- but it still hurt.

Spreading her fingers to allow the water to cover as much skin as possible, Jinx heard Wally moving in the background. The closet door opened and closed, the paper wrapping was torn off of a bulb, and the chair was repositioned under the socket. The sound of feet stepping onto the chair and then-

"_Ow!"_

A split second later Wally was beside her at the sink, pushing a slightly red hand under the stream of water.

Jinx glanced at his hand and then up at him, smirking. "It doesn't look all that bad to me," she said sweetly. "Just a little red."


	7. Friend

**Oh My God, guys: My brother drew me a picture of Kid Flash for Hanukkah! He's running and saluting with his right hand and holding a rose in his left hand. Eeep! I'm so excited! Kid Flash... he's just so... well, _you_ know.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own TT but I _do _own a new pair of earrings.**

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**007: Friend**

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The sun had just begun to set when the call came in that a gang of thugs was causing havoc in the warehouses. Jinx and Kid Flash had gone out with a shrug, expecting a short fight, easy victory, and to be back home before the evening set in. 

What they _hadn't_ expected was that there would be _eight_ thugs. With guns. And knives. Which wasn't all that bad _either_- all it meant was a slightly longer fight- except that there weren't any people in the warehouses to mug, and there were certainly no valuables for the stealing. But criminals had been known to do stranger things, so Kid Flash took the thugs on the left while Jinx dealt with the thugs on the right.

Her eyes glowing pink, Jinx dealt each thug a dose of hex, dodging the occasional bullet, and, when she was close enough, fighting hand to hand. When one of the thugs tried to rush at her, she put her hand out as if to say _"stop"_ and a blast of hex threw him back just as she turned to slam her fist into the chin of one of the other gang members.

It went on this way for a little while, until at some point Jinx realized that she had been moving backwards, towards one of the open warehouses. Not only that, but she seemed to have lost sight of Kid Flash. There was a slight lull in the fight- just a moment or so when Jinx was able to catch her breath- and in the second she turned her head to try and catch a glimpse of Kid Flash's uniform she was suddenly shoved backwards, the momentum of which slammed her into the back wall of the warehouse.

Jinx cursed softly and rubbed her head as she stood up. Looking around for the thug that had taken her by surprise, she suddenly noticed that the garage-style door of the warehouse was closing- and fast.

Jinx broke out in a run, willing herself to go faster, but the door was faster than she was, and it slammed to the ground seconds before she reached it.

Taking a deep breath to regain her balance, Jinx raised her hand to deliver a hex that would hopefully blow the door to kingdom come, when a sound behind her caught her attention. As she turned around in the dim light of the spacious, empty warehouse, Jinx heard the sound again.

Jinx narrowed her eyes; most likely it was the thug that had been bothering her, and it was probably a better idea to open the door and _then_ take the guy out, but the sound of footsteps made Jinx turn completely from the door. Eyes glowing pink, hands raised in anticipation, Jinx waited as her pursuer approached from out of the shadows. And she gasped.

"Hey, Jinx."

She'd honestly expected- well, at least she'd _hoped_- never to see him again. Because as close as they'd once been, as close as they'd once been to being more than friends, as much as she had regretted never properly saying goodbye to him, Jinx knew that if they were to ever meet again, _this_ was how it would be. On different sides of the world. On different sides of the law.

Jinx lowered her hands, but only slightly, and spoke quietly. "See-More."

He smiled. "It's been a while."

"Yeah." Jinx shifted nervously, her eyes darting from him to the emptiness all around them.

Seeming to sense her worry, See-More said, "Oh, don't worry about those guys. They're ordered not to hurt you- either of you," he added, "and they won't attack right now."

"How do you kn-" Jinx narrowed her eyes. Suddenly she understood. "Did you _hire_ them?" she asked incredulously.

See-More shrugged. "I had to find some way of seeing you."

When he didn't deny it, Jinx took a step back. But then what he'd said started to sink in.

"Wait," she said. "What do you mean?"

"I mean…" He was silent as he picked his words. Finally he settled for what had already been said. "I wanted to see you."

"Why?" Jinx asked, a little harsher than she had intended.

"Because," See-More began, taking a hesitant step forwards. "I- I missed you."

Jinx stood silently, her hands still glowing, but down by her sides. Regarding See-More uneasily, she tried to make sense of his words.

He missed her. He _missed _her? Of all the things she had expected him to say, this had never even crossed her mind. Why should he miss her, when she had left him for the opposition? When she had pulled him from the HIVE to join her team, only to ditch them soon after? When she had taken advantage of his feelings for her, knowing she would never be able to reciprocate them?

_Why should he miss her?_

"You shouldn't miss me." Jinx said softly.

See-More shrugged. "But I do."

Jinx's eyes started to glow pink and See-More stepped back, having spent enough time with her to know what this meant.

"You shouldn't miss me!" she screamed. She wasn't sure why she was so angry, only that she _was_, she was _furious,_ and she couldn't bottle it up any longer. "You shouldn't want to see me! You should hate me! You should want to see me dead!"

See-More opened his mouth but no words came out. Hurt shone in his one huge eye.

"Why would you want to see me, See-More? I betrayed my own team, I betrayed you, I joined the other side!" Jinx raised a glowing pink hand, but when See-More flinched in anticipation she stopped. She wasn't angry with See-More. She was angry with… _her._

Jinx lowered her hand. Her eyes returned to their normal color and she shook her head. "You shouldn't miss me."

"Jinx," See-More began hesitantly. "I didn't… I really…" He bit his lip and looked away. "Do you really think I should hate you?"

Jinx frowned. "Why shouldn't you?"

See-More smiled lightly and turned back towards her. "I don't know." Before Jinx could interrupt he continued, "But I don't. Not anymore."

A knot started to form in Jinx's stomach at his words. "Did you?" she asked, unsure of what she wanted his answer to be.

"The team was mad," See-More conceded. "It got pretty bad there for a while. I- I wouldn't go making trouble in their stomping ground for a while if I was you, but things have cooled down a little at home." It didn't get by Jinx that See-More had not quite answered her question.

She was silent, looking at the ground between them, and then, "I'm sorry." See-More didn't try to interject, so Jinx went on. "I'm sorry I left the team. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I'm sorry I…" She looked up at him. "I'm sorry I messed everything up."

See-More nodded, and in that one small motion relieved her of everything she had feared. "Are you..." He motioned behind Jinx, to where Kid Flash was presumably still fighting. "Are you happy now?"

Jinx couldn't help it: she smiled lightly. "Yes."

A pleased smile passed over See-More's face. "That's good."

Jinx looked back over her shoulder for a moment. When she turned back she asked, "What if I had been hurt? Or what if…" Motioning over her shoulder, she finished, "What if he had been hurt?"

See-More smiled again. "Oh, come on, Jinx, I know you better than that. A couple hired hands couldn't touch you even if they hadn't been hired by me. And I figured you wouldn't have left us for someone that couldn't handle himself in a fight."

The corners of Jinx's mouth rose again, slightly. "Thank you."

A look of confusion crossed See-More's face briefly. "For what?"

"For…" Jinx spread her hands around her. "For understanding me. For finding me. For everything."

See-More smiled, and opened his mouth to respond when they heard Jinx's name being called from outside the warehouse.

"Looks like your hired help wasn't very competent," she teased.

Shrugging, See-More responded, "You get what you don't pay for."

Jinx laughed, but See-More's face had grown sober.

"You're going to get in trouble if they find out I was here and you didn't catch me," he said seriously.

Jinx turned around. She was aware she was breaking all the rules in the book, but there was no way she was going to arrest See-More. "I can't catch someone I never saw."

She could still feel his gaze on her back. Finally he said, "See you around, Jinx."

Jinx swallowed. "Goodbye."

Behind her Jinx could faintly hear shoe steps as See-More retreated. She counted to ten in her head, wanting to turn around yet not wanting to for fear of who she would- or wouldn't- see. A hand on her shoulder made her spin backwards.

"Jinx, are you okay?"

When she came face-to-face with Kid Flash her expression changed, whether for better or worse she wasn't sure. Jinx suppressed whatever she was feeling and nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine."

Kid Flash looked around. "What happened? Was someone in here?"

Jinx nodded. "Yeah, but I lost him." She wasn't lying- only telling part of the truth.

"Well, the rest of them are rounded up. One of them by themselves isn't going to get very far." They started walking back towards the exit. "After all, what's one person without their friends?"

Jinx laced her fingers through Kid Flash's as she answered.

"Nothing."


	8. Floor

**Um, this chapter is the way it is because my mind wanders and present tense rocks (_sometimes..._) and with these prompts I force myself to think outside of the box and if it wasn't this it was going to be someone passing out onto the floor, and I _really_ didn't feel like writing that. Can you tell how tired I am?**

**But most importantly this chapter goes out to Rena Redhead, because her review reply today totally kicked me into gear. Thanks, Rena!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Titans, or wikipedia, which helped me with minimally with this chapter. **

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**008: Floor**

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It is an unusually hot day for Jump City. Kid Flash stands on the pier next to the beach, his gaze traveling out towards the distance. He is deep in thought. He is trying to figure out what he is going to do next. He is trying to figure out if it is his place _to_ do something next. 

Jinx was here earlier, but she left around half an hour ago. Kid Flash had asked to meet her here, because he thought she would be more comfortable talking to him in a place where there were lots of other people around. But whether it was because of the people, or because of the heat, or simply because of him, she was not comfortable. And now Kid Flash is not sure what to do next.

-Earlier-

_Kid Flash leans against the pier railing, his back turned towards the beach, his eyes on the crowd as he waits for her to show up. When he sees the girl with pink hair, boots, and a scowl on her face, his own face brightens. _

_He says nothing as she approaches him and crosses her arms, gazing out at the water. She is wearing jeans, a long sleeved black shirt, and, of course, her boots, and he notes that that outfit must be uncomfortable in this weather. He has left his costume in his closet today, instead wearing jeans and a t-shirt. She has seen him before with his mask off, a few weeks ago when he approached her in a café. But he is certain that even had she not seen him previously out of costume, she would be smart enough to pick him out in a crowd._

"_Kind of a hot day for long sleeves, isn't it?" he asks teasingly._

_She doesn't respond._

"_Have you given anymore thought to what we've talked about?"_

_She shrugs._

_He nods. "That's alright. It's a lot to think about. Just let me know when you're ready to talk and we can-"_

_"Can you just stop bothering me?"_

_Kid Flash pauses. He has trouble deciding whether or not she's joking, but quickly decides that she isn't one to joke. But he is._

_"If I stopped bothering you when would I be able to see your smiling face?" he says with a grin._

_She makes an annoyed sound and turns to face him. _

_"Seriously- leave me alone."_

_He turns his head to the side slightly. "Is something wrong?"_

_"Yes!" she exclaims, her eyes flashing with aggravation. "I want you to stop playing this game with me!"_

_Now Kid Flash is confused. "What game?"_

_"This!" she says, throwing her hands into the air in frustration. "This whole trying-to-redeem-me thing. I'm tired of being patronized, I'm tired of your lies, and I'm tired of _you_!"_

_Kid Flash doesn't know what to say. He opens his mouth, closes it again. Then, "I'm not lying to you."_

_Rolling her eyes, she sarcastically replies, "Yeah, I'm sure."_

_"Why would I lie to you?" he says, unintentionally raising his voice. He's torn between being angry that she doesn't trust him and upset that he's come off that way to her. "Why can't you believe I care about you?" He has added this last part without thinking, but as he speaks he realizes its truth._

_She shakes her head. "Why _would_ you?" Her voice is quiet, but thick with accusation and hurt._

_She turns to go, but he reaches out and grabs her arm, stopping her abruptly. Her shoulders tense, but then she turns back to look at him._

_His face is pained and honest. _

"_Why _wouldn't_ I care about you?" _

_She regards him for a moment, holding his eyes with her own. Finally she narrows her eyes again and yanks her arm out of his hold._

_"Why _would_ you?" she spits out._

_Kid Flash watches as Jinx walks away._

-Now-

He sighs, and puts a hand through his hair.

_What to do now?_

Standing up straight, he walks along the pier until he gets to the wooden steps leading down to the beach. He walks out onto the sand, his shoes leaving prints.

He has tried to tell her that he has no ulterior motives, no superhero commission; that he really just wants what's best for her. But she is so stubborn, so suspicious, so inflexible that it's almost impossible to talk to her. It's almost impossible to make her understand.

Kid Flash kicks at the sand. He's close enough to the water now that the sand has become dark and moist. He walks a little ways farther until the water just barely skims his shoes.

Maybe she's heard it all before. Maybe people have lied to her before, and that's why she's hesitant to accept what he says. He doesn't know much about her past- he doesn't know _anything_ about her past- but it seems plausible.

But if words have deceived her before, what can he say now that will prove to her that he doesn't care about her team, or the HIVE, or any of that- he just cares about her?

The water rolls up to his shoes again, and when it recedes it leaves in its wake a smattering of pebbles and tiny shells. Kid Flash looks at the little stones for a moment, and then he looks back out at the water.

It really is a hot day…

Without giving himself a chance to think, Kid Flash is running, his body becoming a streak of colors as he propels himself forward. He does not run as fast as possible, because that would keep him skimming the top of the water. What he wants is somewhat further down.

He lets himself sink, down, down, down to the bottom of the ocean. He still runs; after all, he can't hold his breath forever, and though his body temperature speeds up when he runs the water is still cold.

Under the ocean everything is different, bathed in a blue light that illuminates all. As he continues to run, ignoring the pressure building in his ears, his eyes scan the ocean floor, looking for something, anything. He doesn't know what he's looking for, and he doesn't know why he thinks he'll find it underwater when he couldn't find it on the topside, but still he runs, looking, searching.

Like every time he runs, everything slows down to the point where he is almost the only thing moving. The dozens of tiny fish, the rocks floating in the current, even the waves themselves seem to have come to a standstill. The colors are amazing; blues and greens and yellows and oranges and pinks- everything is vibrant and beautiful. And then he knows why he needed to come down here to find something that will prove to Jinx what she means to him.

He needs to find her something that will show her just how vibrant and beautiful life- _her_ life- can be.

Something just ahead catches his eye, and he slows down infinitesimally to get a better look. It is a shell, a conch shell, it's orange exterior curled in to reveal the pink interior. It is stunning and unique and perfect and _her._

Reaching down to grasp it carefully as he passes by, Kid Flash curves his path and heads back for the sand. When he breaks the surface he gasps for air- he's been under for twelve seconds, and his lungs are aching. He collapses momentarily on the beach, leaning on his knees and hands, his head bent as he takes huge gulps of oxygen. Then, the sun having taken the initial chill from his wet clothes and body, he picks up the shell and takes off.

It is only after he's started running, the conch shell held protectively against his chest by his right hand, that he realizes he doesn't know where she is. It's been three quarters of an hour since she left him standing on the pier, and in that amount of time she could have gotten well onto the other side of town. Still, she doesn't have her own transportation, and he knows where she likes to go. He decides to check out the places she frequents.

Kid Flash finds her on the way to an old burned down construction site- she's told him before in a rare moment of civility towards him that she likes to come here and think. When he spots her she has not yet arrived at her destination, but is walking slowly along the empty sidewalk.

He stops without warning in front of her, and when the rush of wind makes her look up she gasps. Then she frowns. She opens her mouth to say something but he cuts her off when he holds out the conch shell towards her. Taking it tentatively in her hands and feeling its weight and texture, she looks up at him with a blank look on her face.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" she asks dully.

"Keep it."

She opens her mouth to respond, when he cuts her off again.

"And bring it back to me when you're ready to accept that I care about you."

Jinx raises her eyebrows just slightly. She looks down at the shell in her hands. A minute passes, and then another, and Kid Flash can see the gears working in her head. Then she looks back up at him.

Jinx takes a step forward, and holds out the shell.


	9. Cheat

**Yay for random fight scenes!!!**

**But really. I just recently realized that I can use what I'm learning in karate to make my fight scenes both more interesting and more intelligible. That, and I really wanted to use Jinx's line about cheating. Oh, and Ultimate Spider-Man rocks so hard it's almost ridiculous. AND I've got my first karate test on Wednesday. So lots of things are going on.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own TT or Ultimate Spider-Man.**

**This chapter may also be rated slightly higher than previous chapters, for violence and very slight language. Just a heads up.**

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**009: Cheat**

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_Fake Spider-Man: P-please… I'm- I'm just some guy…_

_Spider-Man: "Just some _guy?_" Just-- some-- _guy?!! _The world thinks I'm a _murderer_ now!! All these people are sitting here fearing for their lives-- praying that they get to go home to their families-- just so some guy can try to steal some money!! So _"some guy"_ can pretend to be famous because he puts on a costume!!!... _So what's to stop me from murdering you!! Huh?! Why not!?!... What difference would it make? Tell me you don't deserve it!! _Tell me why I shouldn't kill _you_ right here!!_

_-Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 5: Public Scrutiny by Brian Michael Bendis_

xxx

It was easier to fight when they could split up. Fighting side-by-side, Jinx felt like she was under constant scrutiny; she needed to show Kid Flash she could fight just as well as he could- hell, she was pretty sure she could fight _better_ than he could- but at the same time she had to uphold that oh-so-noble hero ideal of showing the enemy mercy.

It was just one more thing about being a hero that she really didn't understand. The villains never held back- she could vouch for that- and if the good guys were trying to stop the criminals, protect the civilians, and not get killed in the process, why should they have to exert less force than their opponents?

Wally had tried to explain it to her before. As heroes they had to set good examples, and beating the villains by too much only made the villains resent them even more. But to Jinx is still didn't make sense. It went against everything she'd been taught, and everything she believed. So she had told Wally she'd try to tone her fighting down, but at every possible opportunity during battles she would slip out of his view, hoping to get in a few real hits before she had to put on her lenient hero face again. And now was the perfect opportunity to do just that.

The Pat Jeffings Leasing building was in the middle of Banning Street. Normally it was uninteresting and unassuming from the outside, its concrete exterior and tinted windows exactly the same as all of the other buildings in the business district. But today it was a madhouse.

Kid Flash had gotten the call at around one o'clock; a group of disgruntled ex-employees, jobless now after several waves of lay offs, had stormed the building brandishing guns and tear gas. Most of the employees had been able to escape out the fire exits, but those who worked on the top floors were still inside, being held as hostages. Negotiators had tried talking to the bandits, and had verified among each other that this unruly group of lawyers and accountants was entirely unlikely to actually hurt anyone. Still, they needed to get them out of there. That was were Kid Flash and Jinx came in.

Taking a quick analysis of the situation from the sidewalk, and throwing cursory glances at the building's blueprints, Kid Flash and Jinx circled the building slowly.

"It sounds like most of hostages are being kept upstairs," Kid Flash said.

"But gunshots keep coming from downstairs," Jinx pointed out.

They stopped walking and turned to face each other.

"Think we should split up?" Kid Flash put a hand above his eyes to ward off the glare from the sun and craned his neck to look at the upper stories of the skyscraper.

Jinx nodded. "Absolutely."

"You want the top or the bottom?" Kid Flash glanced towards her as they began walking towards the building's back entrance, where it was safer to get inside.

Jinx let her hands begin to glow a soft pink. "I'll take the bottom."

"Alright, I'll get the top. Let's move."

Kid Flash led the way into the building and in the blink of an eye he was gone, rushing up the stairs to deal with the hostages. The sudden rush of air alerted the two gunmen guarding the front door to their presence, and as they turned around Jinx threw a hex at each of them. One burst of energy landed at the floor before the first man's feet, knocking him off balance. The other hex hit the second man straight on the shoulder. He let out a yell and kicked his downed partner, shouting for him to get up.

Jinx smirked as they rushed towards her. Executing a cartwheel to evade a set of bullets, she landed before them and held up her hands, her eyes glowing. But the man with the burnt shoulder wasn't going to fall for the same trick twice, and as she got ready to let loose her hex he rammed the butt of his gun into her wrists.

Cursing and biting back a hiss of pain, Jinx used her downward momentum to her advantage. As she fell towards the ground she swept her legs at the gunmen's feet, both bruising their shins with her heavy boots and knocking them again to the floor.

"You bi-!"

The man didn't get to finish his insult or finish getting up as Jinx sprang to her feet and planted a downward thrust kick into his stomach. The wind adequately knocked out of him, Jinx kicked his gun away and turned towards the other man.

"Going somewhere?" she asked sarcastically. "We're not done here."

The man, apparently deciding that he agreed with her, aimed his gun at her and let off a string of bullets. Jinx flinched as she felt one of the bullets graze her arm. When the man stopped firing, having emptied his weapon, Jinx raised her eyebrows at him.

"My turn."

She held up both her hands, palms facing front, and delivered a wave of pink hex at the man. Falling back against a wall, his face contorted in pain and anger, the man propelled himself forward. Jinx sidestepped a punch and then sent one of her own fists out, hitting him square in the jaw. Another kick to his stomach and he was out cold, his body sagging to the marble floor.

Jinx sighed, looking down at the man's unconscious form. Then, thinking that if Kid Flash was taking this long he could probably use some help, she turned towards the elevators. But she'd barely made it three steps when someone grabbed her upper arms from behind, pulling her backwards and locking one arm behind both of hers. Jinx began to struggle but had to stop abruptly when she felt the sharp edge of a knife press against her neck. Turning her head as much as she could, Jinx could see out of the corner of her eye the man with the burnt shoulder, who was supposed to be recuperating from getting kicked in the stomach.

"New rule," the man said, walking backwards slowly and bringing her with him. "My friends and I get out of here clean and get free passage to an airport. We bring you along as insurance. When we're safe on a plane and the police are no where in sight you run back home to your boyfriend. But if we don't get on that plane…" he trailed off, but made his point clear as he pressed the blade slightly harder against Jinx's throat. She could feel the metal cut the top layer of skin, and she ground her teeth together to keep from showing the pain.

"So," the man said conversationally, the two of them poised near the elevators where he would easily be able to contact his friends, "Do we have a deal?"

Jinx lifted her chin slightly. "That's cheating." Her eyes began to glow. "I _hate_ cheating."

Before he could react, Jinx rammed herself backwards, driving both of them against the wall, and slammed the back of her head into his face. As the man cried out in shock and pain, she took advantage of his lowered guard and thrust her right shoulder foreword, forcing his hand away from her neck. Then she jerked her arms free. Grabbing onto his wrist, she twisted him around, forcing the knife to fall from his hand onto the floor with a clatter and pushing him face forward against the wall.

"How about we try _my _rules?" Jinx shouted in his ear. She brought her knee up and jabbed him in the middle of his back. Then she brought her elbow down on the base of his neck, causing him to cry out again. "How does _that _sound?"

In response the man began trying to squirm out of her grasp. "Please… please don't hurt me…" he whimpered.

"Why the hell _not?_" Jinx punctuated her words by grabbing the back of the man's jacket and slamming him back into the wall.

"I didn't… I mean, I just… I don't…"

"Wrong answer," Jinx replied stonily. Bending down swiftly, she curled her fingers around the knife's handle. It was still warm from the man's hand, and the blade had a faint streak of blood on it. Her blood.

Jinx held the weapon where the man could see it. She wasn't sure what she was going to do with it, whether she was going to do anything with it at all, but it felt right to hold it, to feel its weight and to have something to hold an inch away from the man's cheek.

"So," Jinx said. "You never answered my-"

"_Jinx, stop!"_

A split second later the knife was being wrenched out of her grasp by a red-gloved hand. A hand on her shoulder spun her around until she was face-to-face with Kid Flash.

"Jinx, what were you _thinking?_"

Jinx's face morphed from confused to angry. "I'm doing my job!" she retorted. Pointing a finger at the man who now sat crouched on his knees, tears streaming down his bloodied face, she continued, "He was holding a knife to my throat! What was I _supposed_ to do?!"

Kid Flash sighed and looked away. Jinx stood with her arms crossed as police poured into the building. One policeman grabbed the gunman on the floor, shoving his wrists into handcuffs as he pulled him away. When a couple of minutes had passed and the ground floor was again momentarily empty and silent, Kid Flash turned back to her.

"You just can't…" He pursed his lips together. "You can't do that."

"I can't do what? Defend myself?" Jinx fumed.

"You can't pull a knife on someone."

"Wally, I throw hexes at people! You do running kicks at hundreds of miles an hour! How is using an actual weapon any different?"

"Because," Kid Flash said. He tried to put a hand on her arm but she shrugged him off and took a step back. "Because _we_ are different. _You_ are different. Don't you see," he said, spreading his arms as if to encompass all the villains they'd ever fought. "Don't you see how you are different than they are?"

Jinx turned her head. The movement made the cut on her neck sting. When she clenched her fist she could remember the exact proportions of the knife in her hand.

"No," Jinx finally answered. She turned and started walking away. "No, I don't."


	10. Think

**After posting Cheat, I decided to make this chapter a sequel. This was actually written prior to Cheat, earlier this month while I was sitting in an airport in Mexico with nothing to read, but somehow it worked out that all I had to do was change a sentence or two and it picked up roughly where Cheat left off. I'm thinking this takes place a couple days after Cheat.**

**And since we're 1/10th of the way done, I thought I'd ask which chapter so far (including this one) has been your favorite. Because I'm curious that way.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own TT. **

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**010: Think**

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_Dear Wally,_

_I was never one for flowery or false beginnings so I'm just going to get right to the point and say it: I'm leaving._

_Before you drop this letter and get that rare intense look in your eye that I love and speed off to find me, let me explain._

_I tried. I really did. I tried to convince myself that my heart was pure and that I wasn't tempted to slip out a window at night, just to do something the least bit risky. I tried to tell myself that every time we went to a restaurant I was wasn't tempted to get up and leave without paying, just to feel the adrenaline in my veins. I tried to tell myself that I wasn't tempted to pocket some of the jewels we recovered, just because I knew I could. I tried to convince myself that I'd changed. But I couldn't._

_I'm not saying that nothing you said struck a chord in me. If that was the case we both know I'd never have stuck around as long as I did. But at the same time, it was foolish of either of us to believe you could reform me completely. I mean, I could take you out of your element for six months, too- take you to the other side, show you how to be a villain, and why being a villain offers greater benefits than being a hero. And maybe after six months you'd like the feeling of total release that comes with breaking the law. But in your heart you'd still be one of the good guys. You'd still be a hero. And six months later I'm still… me._

_You have to understand- it's not that I don't like being a hero. It's sort of nice to know you're helping people, and to be able to go out in public without fear of being arrested. But I'm just not used to little girls telling me they want to dye their hair pink because they want to look just like me, or to seeing my picture in the newspaper next to the words, "Hero foils bank robbery," or to needing to show mercy to people that would show none to either of us. Helping people and being off the "most-wanted" signs I can deal with; it's needing to be a role model and live by morals I don't believe in that I can't._

_I guess what I'm trying to say is that I still don't know who I am, or which side of the law I belong on. I'd say that maybe it's time for me to give up the whole hero and villain thing, but I just can't do that. You know what it's like to have powers, to be different and know it, to want to show it. It's not something I can just turn away from. I guess you could say it's part of my curse._

_So I'm going to go away for a while. I'm not sure where to, but to be honest, I wouldn't tell you even if I did. I just need some time to be on my own, and to think. I've got to figure out where I belong- with you or them, with the heroes or the villains, or somewhere in between._

_I've got to go now, Wally, before I change my mind. I'll leave this note on the table, where I know you'll find it. You've already given me so much- more then I've ever deserved- but before I go I need to ask you one last thing: Please, don't try to find me. I know you could cover the whole city in a split second, but I need you to promise that you won't. Just close your eyes and take a deep breath, and when you open your eyes again just go on with your life like you always have. I don't know where I'm going, I don't know when I'll be back, and I don't know who I'll be then. Just know that I'm grateful for everything you've done for me, and that we will see each other again some day._

_I'll be seeing you, Wally._

_-Jinx_


	11. Disgust

**Goodness gracious, life has been hectic. Oh, hey, I got my braces off. That was pretty exciting. They told me I was getting a retainer, and I was all set to get it half-orange and half-black so it would be all Slade-like, but then they gave me this invisible thing. So I got an orange retainer case. Yes I did.**

**Um, okay, a couple things that actually have to do with this fic: 1) An anonymous reviewer asked if I could write a sequel to Think so we could see what Jinx would be like after she went back to Wally, but I find it difficult to assume she went back to him. I know she said she'd see him again, but in my mind that doesn't necessarily translate to her joining up with him again. What do you guys think?**

**Also, I just want to put out there that this chapter does not depict Jinx as I usually do; namely, completely strong and confident. It's just that no one can be totally confident all the time, and I think anyone, especially a former villain, would feel nervous and intimidated in this situation. So I apologize if I offend you, but just know this doesn't mean I see Jinx as any less capable.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, but I did have a pretty crazy dream about Slade and the Titans a few nights ago. That was... intense.**

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**011: Disgust**

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To say that Jinx was a little nervous about her first meeting with the Titans would have been an understatement. To say Jinx was _terrified_ of her first meeting with the Titans was a little more on the mark. But Wally had been adamant that she meet them, and even more resolute in his confidence that it would go well, so she'd had no real choice but to comply. After all, she was a _Hero_ now, so there really wasn't anything she had to be worried about. 

At least, that's what she kept telling herself.

Standing on the barge that was steadily taking them closer and closer across the bay to Titans Tower, Jinx was in the process of taking deep breaths and trying to keep herself from jumping off the barge and swimming back to the sidewalk. Beside her, Wally rubbed his hands together against the cold. Jinx saw a light turn on in one of the upper stories of the Tower, and for some reason the action sent a new wave of anxiety through her.

It didn't help Jinx's nerves that she had replaced her usual outfit with "civvies," as Wally called civilian clothes. There was nothing wrong with the pants and sweater she was wearing; it was just that she was used to her dress and boots. _But,_ she thought, _It would probably be even more awkward to meet them if I was in the same clothes I wore when I was fighting them_. Jinx sighed. So maybe it was better that she had dressed differently, but she'd already made up her mind that she wasn't going to change her costume. If the Titans- or Wally, for that matter- didn't like it, then tough.

Glancing over at Jinx and sensing that her anxiety was not fading- was, if anything, only building- Wally smiled and put an arm around her shoulders.

"You doing okay?" he asked.

Her eyes glued to the Tower that was growing ever larger, Jinx responded uncomfortably, "I'm really not looking forward to this."

"I know. But it'll go fine, I promise, and it's going to be a lot easier once you've talked to them."

Jinx wasn't sure who it was supposed to be easier for: her or the Titans, and she was even less sure of what exactly would be easier. But in the relatively short time she'd known him Wally hadn't once led her astray, so she had no reason not to trust him now. Noticing he was looking at her for a response, she nodded.

The barge continued to move forward across the water. When they were so close that they could see the waves breaking on the rocks that formed the Tower's platform, Jinx felt her shoulders involuntarily tense.

_What are you so worried about?_ Jinx reprimanded herself, trying to dispel the apprehension coursing through her veins. The fact that anything- especially the Teen Titans- could make her feel this nervous, this unlike her usual confident, capable self, was adding a tinge of anger to her nervousness. _What could possibly happen that's so bad it's making you this nervous?_ _What's the worst that could happen?_

_What is it that you're scared of?_

But Jinx knew what she was scared of. She was scared because the Titans were practically legends, and her only claim to fame was talking back to Madame Rouge. She was scared because she knew they had no reason to trust her, to believe that she'd really become good, to not expect her to be a spy. She was scared because there was nothing to say this wasn't a trap and that the moment she set foot inside the Tower they wouldn't attack her and she wouldn't end up in a high security prison cell by the end of the day. She was scared because she wasn't sure how they'd look at her when they opened the door: with anger, with patronization, with disgust? She was scared because, when she got right down to it, she wasn't sure of any of this.

The barge stopped and Jinx's stomach plummeted. When she felt Wally's hand slide into hers and squeeze reassuringly, she swallowed and squeezed back.

"Ready?"

Jinx glanced at Wally, then back at the Tower, which was even bigger when she was standing right next to it.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Wally smiled and started leading her forwards.

"You don't need to be scared, Jinx. They're just people, just like you and me."

On any other day at any other time, Jinx would have sent a blood-chilling glare in Wally's direction for using such condescending words. But at the moment, Jinx was too busy _being_ scared to have time to get angry over his _implication_ that she was scared. Instead, she focused on what else he had said.

_They're just people, just like you and me._

As the gap between them and the entrance to the Tower got smaller and smaller, Jinx found herself having a quick-paced, internal argument over his words- a habit she had when confronting something daunting.

First of all, they _weren't_ just like her, as she happened to know that one was an alien and one was half-demon and one was half-robot, and she couldn't even _guess _what the shape-shifter was, but what she did know was that she was not like them, at least not like that. And even besides physicality, they were _heroes_. _Wally_ was a hero. Jinx was... not definable. Hero? Reformed villain? Confused? Well yes, _that_ was a given, but besides that she-

"Okay, here we go."

Jinx suppressed the urge to yank her hand out of his grasp and bolt as Wally stretched out his arm and rang the doorbell. She found that she had to remind herself to breathe.

One second passed, and then another, until Jinx found herself actually believing that the Titans weren't here, that they had gotten a call to go save the city, that-

The door opened and Jinx came face-to-face with Robin. Wally had told her that more than likely the Titans would be wearing their uniforms, but it was still unbelievably strange to be looking into that opaque white mask while not trying to come up with ways to knock him down. Any words Jinx had had in mind dried up on her tongue.

Robin smiled. "Good to see you." He extended his hand to Jinx, who hesitantly shook it. Then he turned to Wally, clapping a friendly hand briefly on his shoulder. "Wally, it's been a while. Why don't you two come inside and I'll get the rest of the team?"

Robin waved them inside and then turned, presumably off to find the other Titans. But before he left, he turned back to Jinx and smiled.

"I'm glad we have a chance to talk." Then he rushed off to find the rest of the Titans.

Jinx leaned on the back of the couch next to Wally, his arm around her lower back. He bent his head towards her ear and whispered something about everything going fine, but she wasn't really listening.

Jinx still didn't know exactly what she was- hero or reformed or just confused- but she knew one thing. When Robin had looked at her, there had been no trace of resentment, no trace of arrogance, and certainly no trace of disgust.

There was still a lot to talk about, and still a lot that had to be figured out, but for the moment, that look was enough.


	12. Shelter

**When I started writing this there was one thought that kept pounding away in my head: "It's... so... _bad._" And after finishing it... I don't know. It's totally content-less. It's alright, I guess. I've been having trouble coming up with ideas lately. Please, if there's anything you want to see happen, let me know and I can make it work for a prompt, because I'm feeling really uninspired. Also, thanks to again to all my reviewers. I really appreciate the feedback!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. I do, however, own two kitties called Nuthead and Purrs and this chapter is dedicated to them.**

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**012: Shelter**

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Rain itself didn't bother Jinx. She sort of liked it actually, especially when it was accompanied by thunder and lightning. But what _did_ bother Jinx was being cooped up inside. And when it rained- hard- for four days straight, and when criminals seemed to be as deterred by the rain as anyone else, cooped up inside was just what Jinx was liable to be. 

So it was with great pleasure that Jinx woke up on the fifth day, which happened to be a Saturday, and, walking by the window, realized that not only was it not raining- it was actually sunny outside. She'd never been so happy to see the sky blue before, and a smile crept over Jinx's lips. The sun already bright enough that Jinx needed to shade her eyes, she reluctantly turned from the window and headed back to her bedroom to get dressed.

When she emerged from her bedroom twenty minutes later, Jinx found Wally in the kitchen already dressed, rummaging around in the refrigerator. As she passed him on the way to the bathroom, Jinx called, "Good morning."

Wally turned at the sound of her voice and smiled. "Morning."

Jinx walked into the bathroom and grabbed her toothbrush from on the shelf. As she brushed her teeth Wally called to her from the kitchen.

"Hey, Jinx, you want to go out for breakfast this morning?"

Jinx spat into the sink and began filling a cup with water. "Sure." She took a sip of water and swished it around in her mouth before spitting it into the sink. It suddenly occurred to her that she had only a ten dollar bill in her wallet. Leaning around the bathroom door, she called out to Wally. "But I need to stop at the bank beforehand. I don't think I have much cash."

Wally shook his head and his hands. "No, it's my treat."

Jinx smiled. "Thanks, Wally." Jinx turned back to the sink to wash her face. It had taken a while for her to get used to it, but Jinx had come to realize that when Wally offered to pay for something he wasn't being condescending; he was just being… him.

Taking the towel from the rack next to the sink, Jinx began drying her face. Suddenly, she heard Wally gasp.

When Jinx didn't hear anything more, she placed the towel back in its place and, curious, left the bathroom and walked towards Wally, who was crouching before the front door.

"Wally, did something-"

"It's a kitty!" Jinx stopped walking as Wally turned around, a huge smile on his face and an orange tabby-cat on the doormat directly outside.

"Um…. Okay." Jinx had never been an animal person, and had never really been able to understand people that were. "Are you ready to-"

"What's your name, little guy?" Wally sat back on the ground and pulled the cat onto his lap. "He doesn't have a tag." Wally pursed his lips in thought. "Sammy. I'm calling him Sammy." Bending his head so he could look the cat in the eyes, he said, "Hello, Sammy."

Jinx watched with one eyebrow raised as Wally scratched the cat- Sammy, apparently- behind the ear and on the neck.

After a moment she said tentatively, "Maybe you should stop petting it. It's making weird noises."

"It's _purring_, Jinx. And his name is _Sammy_."

Jinx rolled her eyes and began walking away. "Whatever."

"I want to keep him."

Wally's words made her stop in her tracks. She turned back towards him slowly. "What did you say?"

Completely unperturbed, Wally repeated, "I want to keep him."

"Wally, you can't just keep it. It probably belongs to someone."

"He doesn't have a tag," Wally pointed out, continuing to pet the cat as he turned to look at Jinx. "He's probably a stray."

"Or maybe he just couldn't get home in the rain. Maybe he was just looking for shelter," Jinx responded, frustrated.

"Is that true?" Wally turned the cat in his lap so he could look him in the eyes again. "Were you just looking for shelter?"

"It's not going to answer you, Wally."

"_Sammy._ His name is_ Sammy_."

Jinx threw her hands up in the air. "I don't _care _what its name is! It's just a cat, and I don't want to keep it!"

"You don't like cats?" Wally had a look on his face as if someone had just told him they didn't like oxygen. "Why not?"

"Because they're _cats_. They shed and they purr or whatever it is they do and they need to go outside and inside and you need to feed them and take them to the vet…" Jinx opened her hands to the ceiling. "That's why."

Wally's face turned to a pout. "But he's got my colors."

Jinx regarded the striped orange cat with a grimace. "So? _You've_ got your colors."

"But I've never _had _a cat before."

"Which means you don't know how to take care of one. And besides, what if we have to go away on a mission? Who's going to take care of it?"

Wally continued petting the cat's soft fur slowly. "I don't know."

Jinx was about to come back with another reason against keeping the purring orange _thing_ when she noticed the truly sad look on Wally's face. She sighed. "Look, Wally, in all honesty I really don't that that cat's a stray. I think someone's probably looking for it. We should check and see if there are any flyers around."

Wally nodded dejectedly. "Yeah, I guess."

"But so it doesn't get lost again why don't you take it inside?"

At this Wally's face lit up. Standing, he scooped the cat into his arms and walked inside, placing him on the other side of the room. Giving him a few last pats on the head, Wally stood up.

"You'll be good while we're gone, right, Sammy?"

In response the cat walked off into Wally's bedroom.

Grinning, Wally went back to the front door where Jinx was waiting for him.

"While we're out let's remember to keep our eyes open for any flyers," Wally reminded Jinx as he shut the door behind them.

Walking down the concrete steps into the sunny day, Jinx decided not to point out to Wally that he could easily cover the whole city, missing flyers and all, in less than a second. After all, Wally was paying for breakfast. For a couple hours at least, she'd let him have a cat.


	13. Borrow

**I'm really, _really_ sorry about the wait with this one. It's been eating away at me for weeks about how long it's been since I've updated. I've got a rough draft of a 15-page paper for my Jewish Thought class due on Thursday that I've needed to work on, and my senior thesis project has been taking up a lot of time, too. Unfortunately, it may be a while again until my next update. Passover comes super early this year, and I need to write a skit for our seder. I'm going to try my hardest to get the next one out soon, but just know I haven't abandoned you.**

**Now for the fun stuff: I went to Wonder-Con last weekend, and it was _so_ much fun. I went to a panel on the making of animated TV shows, and Adam Beechen and Dwayne McDuffie were there, and after the panel my brother and I talked to Adam Beechen and told him how much we loved Haunted. It was so exciting! And I bought a bunch of TT comics and got a sketch of Wonder Girl (original Titans Donna) and saw a preview for Spider-Man 3 (which looked so _unbelievably _awesome). A good time was had by all. Oh, and I totally got compliments on my Cyborg shirt. Because Cyborg rocks.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. **

**Takes place following Homecoming II. **

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013: Borrow

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Kid Flash couldn't remember the last time an emergency meeting had been called at Titans Tower. There were twice yearly meetings when he, the Titans, and Titans East met at the Tower, and he was there pretty regularly to visit or if they needed his assistance. But the last time he'd gotten a call at seven in the morning, a slightly frantic-looking Cyborg on the other end of the line telling him they needed him at the Tower in an hour, had been… well, never. 

Cyborg had been unwilling to reveal anything over the communicator beyond that something dangerous had started and they needed his assistance immediately, so Kid Flash had nodded and said he'd be there at eight. It was eight fifteen now, and Kid Flash was sitting in one of the conference rooms in Titans Tower. Robin was at the head of the table, and scattered around the remaining seats were the rest of the Titans and Titans East. To Kid Flash's left was Speedy, and to his right sat Starfire.

As Robin talked in hushed tones to Beast Boy, pointing at something on a sheet of paper he was holding to which Beast Boy nodded, Speedy asked quietly, "Think this'll take long?"

Kid Flash shrugged. "Do you know why we're here?"

"No idea." Speedy slid a little lower in his seat. "But I know they called at seven in the morning on the one day I was actually going to be able to sleep in."

Kid Flash smiled and was about to respond when Robin cleared his throat and stood up. The room fell silent as they waited for him to begin.

"We've called you all here today on such short notice because something's come up that we'll need your help on. I'm sure you've all heard of the Brotherhood of Evil." A collective nod went around the table. Kid Flash had heard of them once or twice; they'd been big on the scene six or seven years ago, but he was pretty sure they'd either disbanded or been killed. He wondered what they had to do with whatever was going on now, especially as- if he remembered correctly- they'd been the Doom Patrol's territory, and he was certain they could handle their villains by themselves.

Robin continued. "The Brotherhood of Evil has regrouped and is on the full offensive. We got back just an hour ago from fighting them beside the Doom Patrol, and we have reason to believe we will be their next targets."

Kid Flash's eyes widened as gasps and murmurs erupted all around him. He had a feeling he wasn't going to be getting very much sleep for at least the next few months.

Putting up his hands to silence the group, Robin went on. "As you all know, the Brotherhood of Evil is extremely dangerous and _very_ influential. It's highly probable that the Brotherhood will encourage many villains we've fought in the past to join them, as well as some we have yet to meet." Opening a folder, Robin extracted a small stack of papers. Holding them up, he said, "These are profiles of all the villains we've faced that may now become threats. Attached to the profiles are pictures. Some of them aren't very high quality, but they're better than nothing. You can take a look at them in a moment." Robin dropped them in a pile on the table in front of him. "Now, we're going to need your help…"

Robin explained that he and the Titans were going abroad for a while to warn other heroes and try to stop the Brotherhood in its tracks. While they were gone Titans East would need to fill in for them in Jump, as the crime rate was higher than in Steel, and with the Titans gone criminals were more likely to spring up. As for Kid Flash, he would need to take up the slack wherever help was needed, and keep an eye open for anything Titans East might miss. Kid Flash listened carefully, nodding every so often to show his understanding and making mental notes of places he would need to check out for potential criminal activity. Glancing around the table, he could see everyone else doing the same thing. And he was glad to see everyone looked as nervous as he felt.

"That's all the information we have right now," Robin concluded twenty five minutes later. "The Titans and I will be taking the T-Ship and heading back out in a few hours. Remember to keep your communicators on and with you at all times, and please use extreme caution. We don't know the full extent of what the Brotherhood is capable of, but we've had a taste and it wasn't pretty." With that Robin concluded the meeting, and everyone stood up, stretching their legs and talking quietly to whoever they were standing next to.

"…didn't know they were still…"

"…a little freaked out right now…"

"…do you think they're capable of…?"

Kid Flash turned to Speedy, who looked adequately concerned, but was trying valiantly not to show it. He thought about asking if this was a good enough reason to be woken up at seven in the morning, but then decided he didn't feel like getting the glare the archer was likely to give him if he asked. Instead, he walked over to the other side of the table, where Aqualad and Raven were talking. He nodded his greetings to them and then listened for a while before joining in the conversation.

After a little while Robin announced that the Titans would need to get ready to leave in about an hour, and Bumble Bee said that she and Titans East should go back to Steel City to get their things so they could be back not too long after the Titans were gone. As everyone trailed out of the room, Kid Flash turned his attention to the pile of profiles on the table.

The papers had gotten spread out and disorganized as everyone took their turn to glance over them. Kid Flash picked up a couple, looking over the profiles of such villains as Cinderblock, Mumbo, and Mother Mae-Eye. He'd heard of most of them, and fought a few, too. Kid Flash looked over a couple more pages and then put them back on the table, turning to go when something caught his eye.

A picture was hidden at the bottom of the pile, and only a small portion of it was visible, but something about it made Kid Flash pull it out to get a better look. The picture was of a girl in a black dress and boots, with pink hair and a wave of what looked like pink energy flying out of her hands. But what Kid Flash noticed most was her eyes. They were pink, the same pink as her hair, and they were glowing as if lit up from within. They were captivating, her eyes, and Kid Flash found himself hard pressed to tear his gaze away to take a look at her profile.

_Name: Jinx_

_Powers: Bad luck, hexes and moderate hand-to-hand combat skills_

_Currently affiliated with: Leader of the HIVE Five, a division of the HIVE_

Kid Flash skimmed the rest of her profile, reading what they knew of her background- not much- and how dangerous she was- considerably, but not overly so. Looking up, Kid Flash saw Robin about to leave the room.

"Robin," he called out, getting the other boy's attention. Robin turned to look at him, and Kid Flash held up the picture. "I've never heard of her."

"Jinx?" Robin asked. "She was the first major villain the Titans fought after we got together. We cross her from time to time."

Kid Flash lowered his hand and looked at the picture. Her eyes were really pink.

"What's her story?"

Robin walked over next to Kid Flash and took the picture from him, regarding it casually. Kid Flash wondered if one got used to seeing those eyes once they'd seen them dozens of times before.

"She was part of the HIVE's best team a while back. Cyborg worked with her when he infiltrated a couple years ago. We don't know much about how she got her powers, but Raven seems to have an idea of how they work. Good fighter. Smart. Probably a skilled team leader." Robin handed the picture back to Kid Flash. "Why do you ask?"

Kid Flash took the picture and looked it over again. The girl- Jinx- held her arms in front of her and waves of pink energy- hexes?- were sparking from her hands like lightning. One leg was slightly behind her and bent, as if to steady herself, the other one placed firmly on the ground ahead of her. Even from the distance the photograph had been taken from he could see how her jaw was tightened, how her forehead was wrinkled in concentration. And her eyes. Those pink eyes. Kid Flash wanted to see those eyes for himself.

"Do you mind if I borrow this?" Kid Flash asked, holding up the picture and not bothering to answer Robin's question.

Robin opened his mouth as if to say no, closed it, shrugged, and said, "I guess not. You might as well keep an eye out for her, and Bumble Bee already knows about her so she won't need the profile."

Kid Flash nodded. "Thanks." He wished Robin good luck on his mission and, grasping the picture and the attached piece of paper, he headed out the door of the conference room. As he walked through the halls of the Tower, eventually getting to the front door, Kid Flash found himself grateful that Robin hadn't asked him why he wanted to know about her, or why he wanted the picture.

Because truth be told, Kid Flash didn't really know the answer.

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**Motivate an overworked high school senior: Review! They're greatly appreciated!**


	14. Chair

**Fear the non-plot-y-ness!!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. ****And this is the seventy-second time I've made that disclaimer. I counted. :-)**

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**014: Chair**

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It was an ordinary chair. Plain, even. It was one of those chairs that restaurants set up outside to look nice from the sidewalk, but in a pinch can be used as a stepstool or to prop open a door. The kind of chair that seems to attract cobwebs and dust like it was paid to do so. That scrapes against the pavement when you drag it.

The chair was sort of out-of-place next to the table in front of the coffee shop. The table was circular, green, and faux marble, big enough only to suit two or maybe three people if you didn't mind knocking knees. The table did its best to look nice and to pass the coffee shop off as stylish and classy. The chair, on the other hand, looked like it had once had great ambitions but soon realized it could never be as tasteful as the table. It looked like it spent its days lamenting what it could have been, instead of trying to achieve anything.

Besides being a simple model of chair in the first place, this particular chair was slightly worse off than the other ones scattered around. The white paint was peeling slightly on the back and was rubbed off completely from the bottoms of the legs. And it looked like putting your hand on the chair for more than a second was just asking for splinters.

It was an ordinary chair. Plain. Unstylish. Peeling. But it was also the chair that happened to be around when Kid Flash took her to get something to drink and to discuss her future, and it was the chair he happened to pull out for her from the table so she could sit down. Which happened to be the first time someone had pulled a chair out for her. Ever.

The chair was plain, unstylish, and peeling. But it wasn't an ordinary chair. Not really.


	15. Alter

**Finally! I've been ready to post this since Tuesday! I started writing it during a trip over spring break, and worked to get it finished so I could get it posted as soon as I got home, but the docs manager only _just_ started working again. Anyway, to make up for the delay that was there even before the docs manager decided to crash, and because people seemed to get a little thrown off by last chapter, this chapter is the longest so far. I hope everyone had a good Passover/Easter/spring!**

**And that's alt_e_r, not alt_a_r. Yeah, I was disappointed at first, too.**

**Disclaimer: After six days of not being able to post this, I'm in no mood to make some sort of witty statement. I don't own Teen Titans.**

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015: Alter

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Jinx sort of hated cell phones. They were just one more expensive thing to recharge and lose and replace. Not to mention the obnoxious ring tones some people chose- what happened to the good old fashioned _ring?_ But because she was paying for her apartment with the little money she had saved and couldn't afford to pay both the telephone and water bills (the latter had taken preference), she hadn't been able to turn down the cell phone Kid Flash had presented to her. Well, that and he hadn't _let_ her turn down the impossibly small, overly fancy phone. And besides, she grudgingly admitted to needing some form of communication, so she wasn't going to argue too much, especially after she saw that it was silver and not, as she had feared, pink. 

Having gotten into the habit of charging it on the unsteady bedside table overnight, Jinx shouldn't have been surprised when its annoying, high-pitched ringing roused her out of sleep. Checking the clock that was conveniently located on the phone's screen and seeing that it was just after seven, Jinx groaned, flipped the phone open, and held it against her ear.

"What?"

Kid Flash's laugh greeted her from the other end. "Good morning to you, too. And hey, what if it had been someone else calling you? That's not a very friendly way to answer the phone."

"If you gave this number to anyone else I'll kill you," Jinx muttered, slumping back down onto her pillow.

"We need to work on your people skills." Jinx could just imagine the smug look on his face.

"Sounds great. Talk to you later."

"No, wait!" he cried, trying to both stifle his laughter and get her attention. "Are you still there?"

"I'm here, Flash," Jinx answered, not trying to conceal her annoyance. "What do you want?"

"It's 'Wally.'"

"Whatever. What do you want?"

"Get up and get dressed. I'm picking you up in half an hour."

Jinx rubbed her forehead, all notions of sleep slipping away. "Care to tell me why?"

"We've got a busy day ahead of us."

"A busy day doing what?"

"See you soon!" The click she heard told her that Kid Flash was no longer there.

Snapping her phone shut, Jinx squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. After lying for another minute in bed, she finally opened her eyes, threw back the covers, and got up. Pulling open the curtains of the small window that overlooked a side street in between her apartment building and the one next door, early morning light filtered into the room, giving off a pale grey air. Casting a look at the sky, Jinx turned and headed to the bathroom.

After showering- the hot water had barely made it ten minutes again- and brushing her teeth, Jinx got dressed, throwing on a pair of jeans and a brown, long-sleeved shirt; the outfit was all that was clean since she hadn't had time to go to the laundry-mat yesterday. She'd just finished fixing her hair when she heard a knock at the door. Smoothing back the last few strands of pink hair, Jinx walked the short distance to the door and opened it to find a smiling Kid Flash waiting for her.

Extending a paper cup filled with something hot towards her, he cheerfully said, "Good morning. I hope I didn't wake you up too early," he added in a way that said he had no such hope.

Jinx stepped outside and closed the door, needing to pull it shut a few times before it closed all the way, and then locking it. "Is this coffee?" she asked, holding up the cup.

"Yep. Plenty of cream and sugar, the way you like it."

Jinx sipped from the cup. "Thanks."

"No trouble at all."

Jinx wrapped both hands around the cup, warming her fingers. "Now, what's all this about a big day ahead of us?"

"That," said Kid Flash, leading her down the sidewalk, "is precisely what you are about to find out."

xxx

"You want me to help you redecorate your apartment?" Jinx asked incredulously. "That was what was so important?"

"Not the whole apartment," Kid Flash replied, opening the door to his apartment and motioning for her to go inside before stepping in after her and shutting the door. "Just one room. And yes, it is important."

"Why?" Jinx had been to his apartment a handful of times before, but from what she could see there was nothing wrong with it. Actually, as far as she could tell it was a pretty nice place.

"Because I hate it. The room," he clarified. "It's just a storage room, but it drives me crazy every time I have to go in there. And since you weren't doing anything today, I thought you might like to give me a hand."

"How do you know I wasn't doing anything today?" Jinx accused, throwing the empty paper cup into a trash can.

Kid Flash looked over his shoulder as he crossed to the other side of the room. "_Were_ you doing anything today?"

Jinx frowned. "Maybe. But besides, can't you get it done in like three seconds? What do you need help for?"

"Yes, I can get it done in 'like three seconds,' but only if I slap the paint onto the walls with no regard to how it looks. I want it to look nice, and anyway," Wally opened a door on the other side of the room and waved for Jinx to follow, "I wanted the company."

Jinx rolled her eyes but followed him, entering the room just as Wally flipped the lights on. He turned to look at her, gauging her reaction.

"So?"

"This needs some… alterations," Jinx said slowly, her gaze falling on the faded and smudged off-white paint and grungy rug. The closet door in the corner sported a broken hinge, and the mirror affixed to the inside looked like it was about to fall and shatter into a million little pieces. The window on the far wall badly needed to be cleaned.

Seeing the look of bewilderment on her face, Kid Flash smiled. "Some alterations? That's it?" He folded his arms. "Or I could always, you know, just repaint it in three seconds."

Jinx shook her head. "It would be morally irresponsible of me to let you do that."

Kid Flash's smile spread into a full-on grin. "So you'll help me?"

Sighing, Jinx said, "Yes, Flash, I'll help you."

"'Wally,'" he said, enunciating the word slowly. "It's '_Wally_.'"

Ignoring him, Jinx turned, looking at the rest of the room. "So where do we start?"

"Let's get the rug out of here first." Kid Flash crouched next to one edge of the rug, lifting it up. "We can roll it up and carry it into the living room."

Following his lead, Jinx bent down next to him and together they began to roll the rug until it met its other edge. They each grabbed an end and hefting the rolled rug up- it was a lot heavier than it looked- carried it into the living room, dropping it in a corner. When they got back to the room dust was floating in the air, and a large, clean circle amid the dust on the floor showed where the rug had been. A rush of wind passed Jinx, and a second later Kid Flash was standing beside her holding a broom and dustpan. As he swept up the floor, Jinx examined the cans of paint stacked in the corner.

"What color did you choose?" she asked, picking up one of the cans and rolling it from one hand to the other.

"I couldn't decide so I got a couple. Which one do you like?"

"Don't you want to choose?" Jinx asked, glancing over her shoulder at him.

"You're the artist," he responded, not looking up from his sweeping. "Which do you like?"

Jinx placed the can back on the floor and picked up a tool from next to the paint rollers. Prying the lids off the three cans of paint, Jinx took an inventory of the options. One was a pale green, the color of sea glass. The next was a soft yellow. The last one was a warm, dark red. Jinx mulled over them as Kid Flash leaned the broom and dust pan against a wall.

"Think any of them will work?" he asked.

"They're all nice," Jinx said, "but I think the green would be best for the room. The yellow's a little too... yellow, and the red one is too dark for a room this size with only one window. It would feel claustrophobic," she finished. Glancing up at him, she indicated the cans of paint. "Which one do you like?"

"I was sort of leaning towards the green, too," he answered. He picked up the lid to the yellow and fastened it to the can with a piece of masking tape he tore from a role on the floor. Jinx did the same with the can of red.

"Why does it matter so much which paint you use if it's just for a storage room?" Jinx asked.

Kid Flash shrugged. "If I'm fixing it up it might as well look good, right?"

Jinx was about to agree when she noticed something. "Where are all the things you keep stored in here?" she asked. "And when did you take them out?"

"Everything's in a storage facility for now," he explained. "I cleaned it all out this morning. Took even less than three seconds," he added with a smirk.

Jinx smiled sarcastically. "I'm sure. So when do we start painting?"

Kid Flash zipped out of the room, returning a second later with a stack of newspapers and- somehow- a ladder. Dropping the newspapers on the floor and standing the ladder up, Kid Flash answered, "Now."

After covering the floor- which actually looked pretty good now that the rug was gone and it had been swept- with newspaper, Kid Flash divided the paint into two Styrofoam plates and handed Jinx a roller. They worked from the far end of the room back towards the door, painting in an up-and-down motion to get an even coating. They'd already been painting for twenty minutes when Jinx noticed and pointed out that not only were drips of paint getting on the newspaper-covered floor, but were also spattering their clothes. But they both just shrugged, not caring enough about their clothes to want to change or even to put something on over them. By the time the room was done being painted, Kid Flash and Jinx's clothes were completely covered with sprinklings of green paint.

While waiting for the paint to dry, they nailed the mirror on the inside of the closet door back so that it was secure. Jinx held the door by the door knob to keep it from moving as Kid Flash nailed the mirror down.

"Hey, Jinx," Kid Flash suddenly said, a smile spreading across his face, "if you're already a witch do you still get seven years bad luck if you break a mirror?"

Jinx narrowed her eyes. "No, but the speedster standing next to you gets twenty."

Kid Flash gave the nail a few more hits with the hammer. "Do you really expect me to believe that?"

"Do you really expect me not to break the mirror so you can find out?"

"Fair enough," Kid Flash laughed. "Come on, let's have some lunch."

"What time is it?" Jinx asked as she followed Kid Flash into the kitchen.

"Twelve-thirty."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Time flies when you're painting."

By the time they'd finished eating an hour later the paint had dried, and all that was left to do was paint the trim and fix the closet door hinge. After teasingly admonishing him for having left the trim to be painted until after the rest of the walls had been painted, Jinx took the can of paint and the roller Kid Flash offered her and gave the trim around the ceiling as well as around the doorways and window a coat of white. Kid Flash went to work on the hinge. It took him longer than it should have on account of putting the new hinge on backwards the first time, but when the hinge was secure, the trim was no longer off-white but a new, clean white, and they'd washed down the window with a wet washcloth and some soap, the two of them stood back and admired their handiwork.

"It looks good," Jinx declared, surprised at how much better it looked now than it had when she'd first seen the room just six and a half hours ago.

Nodding, Kid Flash agreed, "It's amazing what a few alterations can do."

Once stuffy, dingy, and hardly permissible even as a storage room, the room was now bright and airy, the pale green walls and clean wooden floors making the room look both larger and newer, and the fixed closet door and mirror giving the room an overall tidier look. The smell of fresh paint pervaded the air, and sunlight splashed through the window, washing the room in sunlight.

Jinx bent down and started gathering the newspaper from where they'd pushed it to the side. "Do you need any help putting all your stuff back in here?" Giving up on folding and stacking the newspapers, Jinx began crumpling them into balls.

"No, I don't think so." Kid Flash crouched down on the floor across from her and began helping to bunch up the newspapers.

"Worried I'd just slow you down?" Jinx teased. "Are you just going to put everything back in a three-second trip?"

"Actually, I wasn't planning on putting it back at all," Kid Flash said slowly.

Jinx frowned. "Why did we spend all day cleaning up your storage room if you don't plan on storing anything in it?"

Kid Flash crumpled the piece of newspaper in his hand until it disappeared inside his fist. "It's not a storage room anymore."

"Then what-?"

He looked up at her. "It's _your_ room."

Jinx abruptly stopped gathering newspapers. Turning to look at him, she asked, "What?"

"I know you want to support yourself, but I've seen your apartment and-" he laughed softly- "it needs even more alterations than this room did. And your savings won't last forever. I was thinking you could move in here, just for as long as it took to find another place or," he shrugged, "for however long you wanted to stay."

Jinx regarded him as she considered his offer. He could almost see the gears in her head turning, and for a moment worried she might be angry with him, thinking he saw her as weak.

Finally, she asked, "You're not kidding, Flash?"

"_'Wally,_'" he stressed. "And no, I'm not kidding."

"That would be nice." Jinx smiled slowly but warmly. "Thanks, Wally."

Returning her smile, Wally replied, "No problem at all."

Jinx stood up and Wally followed suit, the newspapers momentarily forgotten.

"So does this mean I can get rid of my cell phone?" Jinx asked, throwing him a grin, and Wally recognized that her question was not entirely sarcastic.

Wally shook his head. "Not on your life." He laughed when Jinx crossed her arms and frowned. "Come on," he said, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Let's go get your stuff."


	16. Peace

**Let's see... What's my excuse for the long wait this time? I'll go with prom, prompt trouble, and one of the most exciting things that's ever happened to me. How exciting? _Very_ exciting. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. But you know when you have writer's block and then one day you're sitting there and all of the sudden an idea just comes to you? That happened to me for this prompt. That was cool.**

**

* * *

**

**016: Peace**

* * *

Kid Flash had been hoping to get to the park bench they'd agreed upon first. He wanted to have some time to get his bearings and take a few deep breaths before having to face her. And it shouldn't have been a hard task to accomplish, getting there before her. He had super speed, after all. But he'd been preoccupied lately, and tired, and hard pressed to get out of the house, let alone use super speed. So he was disappointed, but not surprised, to see her already waiting for him. 

"Hey, Wally." The warmness of her smile these days always gave him a pang of an emotion he couldn't place. It made his stomach feel thick and his eyes sore how he'd tried for so long to bring the warmth to the top of her smile, out from underneath all the bitterness and sarcasm, and how in the end he'd had a part in it but not the part he'd wanted.

"Hi." He returned her hug stiffly and then sat next to her when she returned to her spot on the bench. He kept his gaze forward, not letting his eyes fall on her even when she turned towards him.

"How've you been?"

"Good," he responded automatically. "How about you?"

"I'm doing well."

Flash nodded slightly. "That's good."

A moment of silence passed, and Flash wondered if this was how it would always be between them, an eternity of silences. He suddenly became so horrified of this possible future that her soft words startled him.

"I wasn't sure if I should call you. I know I should probably have given you more time, but…" She trailed off and Flash looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She was turned towards him, but her eyes were on the ground next to them. "But Cyborg called and said you were having a really hard time and maybe it would help if I talked to you." She paused. "He said you've been losing a lot of fights." She waited for him to respond, and when he didn't, she asked, "Is that true?"

"I can take care of myself," he said, meaning to sound confident but realizing he just sounded angry.

"That's not the point. The- are you even going to look at me?"

Flash sighed and turned to face her. Her eyes, which he'd always loved for being so expressive, held a glimmer of annoyance and an ocean of worry. She pressed her lips together.

"The point, Wally, is that you can't keep acting like this. The world hasn't ended. Your life isn't over." She shook her head. "Don't act like it is."

Flash narrowed his eyes. He knew it had been a bad idea to agree to meet her, knew it would just result in a lecture that he didn't want to hear. He stood up.

"I'm leaving." He turned to go but a hand on his arm stopped him.

"Wally, don't-"

"What do you want me to say?" Spinning back to face her, Flash knocked her hand off his arm and regarded her angrily. "What do you want me to do? You told me it's over- I get it. So why won't you leave me alone?"

She retracted her hand, putting it on her lap and sitting up straight. "You never left me alone," she said matter-of-factly.

Flash considered her words. Finally, his voice laced with quiet contempt, he asked, "Should I have?"

"You tell me." Pink eyes bored into blue ones, and she continued, "Would you really have rather let me stay a criminal if you had known we wouldn't end up together once I turned hero?"

He kept his eyes on her a moment more, and then turned his face away from her. After a minute his shoulders fell and he sighed.

"Jinx." He turned and looked back at her. "Why do you care?"

She smiled lightly. "Isn't that what I'm supposed to ask you?"

Flash sighed again and sat back down on the bench. "Why do you care?" he repeated.

"Because even though I'm not _in_ love with you it doesn't mean I don't love you, Wally. It doesn't mean I don't care about you." She paused, and her words sunk into him like sunlight. "I want you to find your peace. I want you to be happy." Smiling, she added, "Besides, I'm supposed to be the bitter one. There can't be two of us."

Flash smiled lightly and replied, "You don't seem very bitter right now."

"No," she said, and he noticed how much more relaxed her voice was now than when they'd first met. "I guess I'm not. But that doesn't mean you need to take my place."

Flash's smile broadened slightly, and so did hers. It still hurt to see her smile and not be able to put his hand on the side of her face, though, the pang of emotion coming back again, not as intensely, but still there. Standing up, he put his hands in his jacket pockets and turned to her.

"I've got to go. There's some stuff I have to do." He motioned vaguely with his elbow as if to show her in which direction he was headed.

She nodded and stood up. "It was nice seeing you. Why don't you give me a call sometime and we can do something?"

"Yeah." He paused and lifted one of his hands in a wave. "See you around."

"Bye, Wally."

Flash turned and walked back across the park. He felt her gaze on his back but didn't turn around, keeping his eyes forward. He would give her a call, maybe not this week or the next, but he knew at some point he'd need to see her again. He knew at some point he'd be able to see her again and wouldn't feel the jolt in his heart he'd come to associate with her. He wasn't foolish enough to think things would ever be the same between them, but maybe some day they would be better. Some day they would have to be better.

Flash crossed the street, and he wondered briefly if she was still smiling.


	17. Beach

**Hm. There seems to be a trend with me not updating. It's not a very fun trend. Well, 21 days until school's out (and I graduate!) and after that updates should be coming much, _much_ quicker. Actually, this summer I'm hoping to get done: 1 chapter of TSAYTD a week, several TT and other fandom oneshots, a TT chapfic, a couple original pieces I'm writing, and a comic I'm working on with my brother. That's... kind of a lot. I wonder how much of it actually gets done?**

**So I've had the idea for this prompt since I wrote Floor and then realized there was another prompt that was actually called Beach. I really like the female bad guy here. I may have to bring her back again.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. I did, however, have a really weird dream a couple days ago in which I was being blackmailed into telling people about my TT comics and when I wouldn't do it the 10 plagues were brought upon me. It... it was really weird.**

* * *

**017: Beach**

* * *

There were some days that Kid Flash didn't want to fight. It wasn't, as might be expected, that he didn't want to be a hero or wished there was no evil in the world; it was more that there were days that, like everyone else, he just wanted to hang out and relax. There were days he would much rather be spending time with Jinx. There were days he just didn't feel like having to drop everything he was doing at the ring of his communicator. But he did it anyway. Because he was a hero, and that's what heroes do. 

Jinx, Flash reflected as he dodged a punch and sent a kick into the ribs of his opponent, never seemed to have this problem. She relished the fight, loved the adrenaline that came with responding to an emergency and beating up the bad guy. He suspected it was a trait carried over from her work as a criminal. He could get by with getting tired of fighting every now and then, but he imagined that you must have to really love being a criminal if you were going to continue working against the law and running the risk of getting arrested every single day. As much as Flash was relieved Jinx had switched sides, it was a quality he couldn't help but admire in her.

Flash, who was still looking at Jinx out of the corner of his eye, was reminded of his job when he failed to move in time, his adversary's fist connecting with his jaw. Flash grunted and with lightning-fast reflexes grabbed the man's wrist, twisting his arm behind him and then pushing him against the railing. Flash would have slammed him against the railing harder, but he wasn't confident that the boardwalk's railing would hold.

He'd been wondering intermittently why these criminals had fled to the pier when he and Jinx had begun to pursue them. The pier stood high above the beach, hitting the sand six or seven feet before the water, and was possibly the most absolute dead-end Flash had ever seen. Besides that it was unsteady and getting unsteadier by the minute, the planks splintering under their feet and the railing every now and then losing a piece of wood to the sand and ocean below. It made Flash fight more cautiously, and made him wish even more that he was at home, reading a book or spending time with Jinx. Fighting was even less fun on days like this when he couldn't get the job done as quickly as he wanted to.

The man Flash held against the railing raised his foot and attempted to lower it sharply onto Flash's. When Flash moved out of the way the man changed his tactic, instead slamming his heel into Flash's knee. But Flash used the sudden jolt of pain to his advantage, dropping to his knees and bringing the man with him so that his chin smashed into the railing. The man cried out, blood dribbling down his chin and a forest of splinters newly embedded in his jaw adding to his discomfort. To Flash's surprise, the next thing he knew the man was sagging onto his side. Watching the man's eyes flutter closed, Flash raised an eyebrow. The idea that someone could pass out at the sight of their own blood had always confused him. It was just blood. It really wasn't that big of a deal.

Flash stood up and took a look around him. Jinx was taking care of one of the remaining criminals, placing well-aimed kicks, punches, and blocks in his direction. Noticing that she was refraining from using hexes, Flash concluded that the unsturdiness of the pier concerned her, too. Jinx wasn't one to hold back and she was perceptive about subtle danger, so seeing her awareness of the situation let Flash know he wasn't overreacting, dispelling the worry that he had been overanalyzing the safety, or lack thereof, of the pier.

A movement a little way down the pier caught his eye, and Flash sped over to the third criminal, a woman who had been knocked unconscious earlier but who was apparently now ready to fight again. Her eye was swollen from where she'd already been hit and she winced slightly as she put weight on her left arm to get up, but the forthcoming form of Kid Flash didn't seem to worry her at all.

Approaching her, Flash chastised, "You should've stayed down."

At the sound of his voice Jinx looked up from what she was doing and noticed the woman getting to her feet.

"They never do," Jinx called back with a smirk.

Flash smiled and turned back towards the woman. "Ready to call it quits?"

Without a word the woman rushed forward, aiming a knife at Flash's chest. Narrowly sidestepping her, Flash put out a foot, tripping her. But she just turned her fall into a roll, springing back up and turning to face him again. Flash cocked his head to the side.

"How was it that you were the first one to fall?"

Again he received no verbal answer, instead watching as she attempted to kick him in the jaw. Her kick was well-aimed but started too far away, and her heel just barely hit his chin. Still, it was enough to feel, especially as he'd already been hit there once. Irritated, Flash grabbed her ankle and lifted it slightly to set her off-balance before twisting her over and slamming her back to the ground. The pier wobbled underneath them and Flash bit back a curse, on reflex looking over at Jinx to make sure she was okay. But letting his attention drift for even one second backfired on him, and Flash felt the cold metal of the knife slice through his pant leg and into his calf.

Spinning around, Flash kicked the knife out of the woman's hand and slammed his foot into her wounded left shoulder. As she pushed herself up, face contorted in pain and anger, Flash tried to kick her legs out from under her again, and when that didn't work sent a punch to her stomach. The woman grunted but grabbed his wrist and attempted to throw him behind her. Flash, however, decided he'd had just enough of this for one day, especially on a _pier_, and before she could throw him he had his other hand enveloping both of hers and was throwing her over his own shoulder. She landed with a _thud_ on her back, making the pier shake again, and before she could move again Flash had his hand on her neck, finding the pressure point he knew was there and putting enough pressure on it so that in a matter of moments she was out cold again.

Breathing hard, Flash glanced behind him to inspect the cut on his leg. It wasn't bad at all, barely more than a flesh wound. It stung and blood was running down his leg and stiffening his pant leg, but it was nothing that couldn't be taken care of once they were done here. Speaking of which…

Flash stood up just in time to see Jinx, still much farther down the pier than he was, send a final punch at her adversary. She looked much better off than Flash did, and he spontaneously smiled as she inspected the fallen man. She was a more skilled fighter than he was, and more cautious, too. Flash leaned against the railing behind him as Jinx looked around to make sure there was no one left to finish. Now that their three opponents were down it was quiet on the pier, the only sounds the screeches of the seagulls, the whistling of the wind, and the crash of the waves. Jinx looked over at Flash and caught his eye.

"You look tired," she shouted to him, a smile playing on her lips. "A few small-time felons too much for you to handle?"

Flash crossed his arms playfully. "Only when I don't want to be here in the first place." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Actually, only when we have to fight on some random pier."

Jinx laughed. "You're telling me you don't like fighting on the pier?" she teased. "Is that why you're just standing there and not cleaning up your leg?"

"Of course not." He paused and then added, "I'm just admiring how pretty you are."

Jinx scoffed. "Right. Come on, we should get these people taken care of."

Flash sighed dramatically. "Fine." He turned back towards the woman who was still, thankfully, unconscious. Actually, the police should be there any second, and Flash didn't see why they had to-

There was the sound of hurried footsteps, a gasp, and the cracking of wood behind him. Flash's head snapped up and he spun around just in time to see the man he'd finished off earlier most definitely conscious and standing much farther down the pier than where he'd fallen earlier. Standing, in fact, with a wicked grin right where Jinx had been. Where Jinx no longer was, but where the railing was broken entirely.

Whenever Flash ran time seemed to slow down impossibly, and usually that was sufficient. There were times, however, that time didn't slow down quite enough, so that while he could still see what was happening in slow motion he didn't have enough time to beat it.

Flash ran down the flight of steps and made it onto the beach just in time to see Jinx hit the sand.

"Jinx!"

By the time he was kneeling next to her time had sped up again and he pulled her into his arms as quickly and gently as he could. She was okay, she had to be okay, because the fall from the pier wasn't _that_ far, not really, not when you considered how many times a day they were in danger and not when you considered how she barely ever got hurt and why weren't her eyes opening and why wasn't she moving?

Putting his hand on the back of her head, Flash felt the wound that made the cut on his leg even more of a joke and tried to brush the sand away without hurting her. And she still wasn't moving.

"Jinx!"

The police would get here soon, he knew, because they always came right after they finished a fight to take away the criminals and get a report and they always brought paramedics and Flash knew he could run with her to a hospital faster than the police or the paramedics could get there but his legs felt like bricks and he couldn't for the life of him remember in which direction the hospital was.

"Jinx!"

Flash held her tightly because he knew that after getting injured people often went into shock and you needed to keep them warm and so he held her against his chest and shook her shoulder softly and now he _really_ wished they hadn't had to fight today and _why wasn't she moving?_

"Jinx!"

It was quiet now, now that the fight was over and Jinx wasn't talking and he was the only one on the beach.

"Jinx!"

All he could hear were the screeches of the seagulls.

"Jinx!"

The whistling of the wind.

"_Jinx!"_

The crash of the waves.


	18. True

**I want to take a moment to say thank you again to everyone who's reviewed. I really appreciate your comments! **

**This chapter was initially but not really anymore inspired by the Sloan song "Somebody I Can Be True With." Well, you should listen to the song anyway. It's a really good song. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. I know. The suspence was killing you.**

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**018: True**

* * *

"You seem different." 

Flash laughed. "For someone so quiet you're not much for subtlety."

Raven smirked. "And you are?"

Shrugging, Flash responded, "I never made any promises." He paused, then asked, "Different how?"

Raven regarded him for a second before sitting back in her chair. "You're calmer. You're more focused. You're happier." Raven paused. "Am I right?"

"_You're_ the empath," Flash answered sarcastically.

"Is it because of her?"

Her blatancy caught him off guard, and Flash raised his eyebrows slightly. "I knew Robin didn't ask me to come to the Tower just to be nice." When Raven said nothing, Flash asked, "Did he ask you to talk to me?"

Raven shook her head. "He was going to talk to you himself. I convinced him to let me do it."

"That was good of you," Flash said. He sounded as if he'd intended to be sarcastic but had changed his mind mid-sentence.

Raven ignored his comment. "So?" she asked, her tone caught somewhere between professional and curious. "Is it?"

"Is it what?"

"Is it because of her?"

Flash smiled slowly. "What if it is?"

"Then I would ask you to be careful."

Flash sighed, but he continued to smile.

"You know she's switched sides," Flash reminded her. It was a statement, not a question.

"I know. But it's easy to switch sides. It can be almost as easy to switch back." Raven paused and considered whether to go on. "It can be even easier to never have switched in the first place."

Flash sat back, mulling over the implications of her words. He knew that the reason Raven had initiated this conversation in the first place was because of Robin, but he knew equally as well that these were concerns that Raven shared. Flash knew that he would have to pick his words carefully, because as much as it frustrated him that they didn't have complete confidence in his judgment, he also knew that they wouldn't care quite as much if they didn't care about him.

Finally, he asked, "What do you want to know?"

Raven's eyebrows knit together slightly. "What do you mean?"

"What do you want to know about her or me or us or anything that would convince you not to worry?" When Raven didn't respond, he continued, "I could tell you everything she's told me about the criminals she used to associate with, about how she became a villain in the first place, about how I first met her. But instead of betraying her trust, and instead of giving you information you probably already have, why don't you tell me what you want to know that would put your mind at rest?"

A look of surprise at Flash's articulation flitted across Raven's face. She folded her arms, understanding that Flash was looking for her to ask something all-encompassing, not a series of inconsequential inquiries. There was one question, of course, that, if answered satisfactorily, would render all other questions unnecessary. Raven decided to go for broke.

"How do you know you can trust her?"

Flash didn't move his eyes from Raven's even as he simultaneously wondered over the number of long pauses there had been in their conversation and over how he could possibly answer her question in a way that would make her understand. The answer was complicated and yet it was not, and Flash struggled to funnel his thoughts into language. When he found the words he was looking for he smiled.

"I trust Jinx," Flash began, "because she is the truest person I have ever met."

When he didn't volunteer anymore information Raven prodded, "How so?"

"You know…" Flash trailed off, shaking his head slightly, subconsciously, unsatisfied with his train of thought. "You know she's not lying," he began again, his hands palm-up as if to provide support for his words, "because she doesn't care enough about what other people think to put effort into pretending to be someone that she's not. Because she will tell you anytime she's having second thoughts. Because she took time and thought it through before deciding to make the commitment to join our side. Because she's brave enough to tell you the truth about what she's doing and thinking and why." Flash's smile became somehow brighter and softer at the same time. "That's why she's the truest person I've ever met. And that's how I know I can trust her."

When he was finished Raven let his words run through her mind, trying to apply them to the same girl she and her teammates had fought so many times less than a year ago. A minute passed and she smirked slightly.

"You know that answer wouldn't have worked on Robin."

Flash grinned. "Does that mean it worked on you?"

Sighing, Raven responded, "I've come to trust my instincts in matters like this, and mine is telling me right now to believe you."

"You should trust your instincts whenever you can, then," Flash said. "It's always a good thing when your instincts tell you to believe the truth."

Raven rolled her eyes but stood up, Flash following suit. He followed her back to the front room, talking with her as they went and stopping to say goodbye to the other Titans along the way before reaching the door that opened onto the island. Raven and Flash exchanged goodbyes, but as Flash was leaving he turned back to her.

"You would like her. Jinx, I mean," he clarified, as if she didn't know who he was talking about. "You remind me of her a little."

"We're that similar?" Raven asked, unsure whether to take this as a compliment or an insult or something in between.

Flash cocked his head to the side. "Well, you're not entirely the same. In some ways you're similar." He shrugged and started to go.

"Is she really the truest person you've ever met?"

The words were out of Raven's mouth before she could stop herself, and she berated herself even as she wondered at the answer.

Flash paused, then turned back to look at her. He was smiling, and somehow it was the truest smile Raven had ever seen.

He said simply, "Yes."


	19. Crazy

**Special thanks goes out first of all to Rena Redhead for beta-ing this and being my 100th reviewer, thereby getting me into the triple digits for the first time ever. Thanks!**

**So this chapter is sort of, well... you'll see. Kind of different. Very different. Anyway...**

**Disclaimer: ...and then I realized I **_**didn't**_** own Teen Titans! Huh!**

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**019: Crazy**

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Jinx didn't know how she'd ended up here. As was happening so often these days her mind had sunk into auto-pilot, her legs moving of their own accord in directions her eyes didn't really see. Usually when she awoke from her subconscious she'd find herself somewhere unimportant and indistinguishable. A couple of times she'd caught herself moving in the direction of the HIVE Five's headquarters and had stopped abruptly, a certain tree or building triggering something in her mind that said _stop._ But Jinx wasn't in the vicinity of the HIVE Five headquarters now. She wasn't even sure she was within the city limits of Jump.

Jinx had heard of this place, this dark hole in the side of the cliff before, of course, but only in rumors. No one liked to admit to believing the cave was real or the story true, but at the same time no one could convince themselves that they weren't. There was no way they could just be fiction; stories like this didn't from the imagination.

The story went that the geomancer was crazy. Or at least, that was what Jinx had heard through the criminal channels, that the girl was a little stupid and a little arrogant but mostly just crazy. After all, you'd have to be crazy, wouldn't you, to do what the girl had done. You'd have to be completely out of your mind to even entertain the idea of doing something so ridiculous, of deceiving so many important people on both sides of the law. You'd have to be crazy enough to know what would happen to you. You'd have to be crazy enough to not care. This was the version of the story that Jinx had accepted the most readily. Something about those circumstances made it seem less likely that the same ending could befall anyone, could befall Jinx herself.

But that hadn't been the only story. There had been so many of them, rumors circulating almost faster than it was possible to sift the possible from the clearly false. These were the rumors Jinx had tried to ignore at the time, the rumors that claimed the geomancer wasn't crazy, but naïve, lonely, and unsure. That she had wanted more for her life and had gambled on a chance that must have been a last resort. That she had been unable to tell the right from the wrong or the true from the false and had ended up paying the price. These were the rumors that scared Jinx because it meant that if they were true the same thing could happen anywhere, anytime, to anyone.

Jinx shivered.

Suddenly she realized how cold it was here, and how little light penetrated the damp darkness. The cave seemed to suck all air and life in, leaving dust and the stench of collapse in exchange. Taking one last look back at the statue proclaimed by the plaque at her feet to be a Teen Titan and a true friend, Jinx shivered once more and hurried out of the cave.


	20. Love

**I like this one!! And I figured, if I'm going to go with the cliché at some point or another, I might as well go all the way and write the cliché for the most clichéd prompt. This takes place, I suppose, pretty early on in their relationship.**

**Also, I'm hoping to write for other fandoms this summer (I'm not abandoning TT, but I just want to branch out some), so which of the following would you be interested in: Spider-Man, James Bond, or Life on Mars? Or if there's anything I mention on my profile you'd be interested in, let me know.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.**

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**020: Love**

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"Do you love me?" 

Wally looked up to see Jinx standing before him, arms crossed and face serious. He was relatively sure she'd just spoken, but he couldn't imagine he'd heard her correctly. Rather than take any chances, he decided he'd better double check.

"What?"

"Do you love me?" she repeated, raising her eyebrows and putting a little more emphasis on her words.

"Um…" Wally wasn't one to be at a loss for something to say, and this was certainly an inconvenient time to start. He racked his memory, trying to figure out what had happened- what he'd said, what he'd done, what _she'd_ said or done- that could have prompted her to ask him this rather… difficult question. Because he loved being with her, loved living with her, loved everything about her, but he'd never seriously considered the question of whether he loved her. And Wally had never told a girl he loved her before- was Jinx going to get angry if he said no? Would she get irritated if he said yes? How could he know what she wanted him to say?

Taking another glance at her expression, and especially at the intensity of her eyes, Wally opened his mouth to answer, only to choke on his words again. "Jinx… Um… I…"

Suddenly Jinx's serious countenance melted off and she burst out laughing. Wally sat, stunned and speechless, as she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around her stomach and laughing harder than he'd ever seen her laugh before.

Disoriented, and more than a little unsure at how to respond, Wally started, "Jinx, is-?"

"You should have seen the look on your face!" Jinx exclaimed through great peals of laughter. She gasped, trying to catch her breath. "You… oh my God… you're face got all red and you started stuttering and…" Jinx lost the battle to try and contain herself, breaking down in laughter again.

"Um… what?" Wally still couldn't see what was so funny, and the situation was beginning to make him feel very uncomfortable.

"I was kidding!" Jinx cried. "I wasn't seriously expecting you to answer that!" Wally raised an eyebrow in puzzlement as Jinx tried again, more successfully this time, to calm down. She took a deep breath and her cheeks returned to their normal pink color, losing the tones of deep red brought on by her excitement. Having pulled herself together, Jinx looked at Wally again and smiled.

"You were so cute. That was funny." Then she shook her head slightly, whether at herself or him Wally wasn't sure.

Jinx turned and starting walking away when a hand on her arm tugged her back and spun her around. She opened her mouth in question but didn't have time to get a single word out before Wally's lips were on hers, kissing her deeply. When finally they broke apart, Jinx's cheeks were flushed again and her eyes widened in surprise.

"Jinx," Wally said quietly, smiling and holding her tightly around the waist, "I love you."


	21. New

**Oh wow. You guys have no idea how excited I am to finally be posting this. Again, I apologize for the lack of updating. I had mad writer's block like I've never had before. I actually ended up writing a letter to writer's block and telling it to go away. Because I am just that desperate.**

**So, this wasn't originally intended to be so... anti-media. (Well, actually, originally it was supposed to be an _entirely _different story, but after starting it and staring at it and hating it for almost a month I finally scrapped it.) We should all go listen to "Radio, Radio" after reading this. **

**Um, and in all seriousness, feel free to PM me and remind (read: kindly bother) me to update if it's been over two weeks since my last update. It might get me to update more regularly. I'm actually going to be out of town from July 23rd to August 17th, but if we're lucky I may be able to update before I leave or on the off-chance I'll have internet access while I'm away.**

**Disclaimer: Heh heh... With my updating track record, can you imagine what would happen if I owned Teen Titans? I'd make _so many_ fans angry _so fast_...**

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021: New

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People feared her when she was a villain. She knows this as surely as she knows they had no real reason to fear her. She was a villain, yes, but she wasn't the type to put civilians in danger just for the fun of it. She doesn't pretend it was out of some small spark of goodness in her; the crimes she was interested in just never called for civilians to be present. 

The newspapers always had a field day after she committed a crime, and Jinx has come to realize this was for two major reasons. First, she is a girl, which apparently in and of itself makes headlines in Jump. Having trained in the HIVE, she was used to being around other female criminals, but since graduating it didn't escape her notice that of those girls she used to train with, the majority of them either moved to other cities or disappeared off the map. In short, she was almost the sole major female villain in Jump, and the media ate it up.

But more than her being female, the newspapers and the news stations focused on Jinx because they found her to be… a threat. The people of Jump were largely jaded to villains, but somehow she had risen above that to become synonymous with real, tangible danger. Her confidence, her cleverness, her sarcasm, and of course her powers gave the city's inhabitants cause to feel threatened by her very presence. Jinx still remembers now the pride she once felt because of that.

But at the same time, Jinx could never help but feel something strange when she passed a civilian during one of her crimes or battles or on the rare occasion she was escorted into a police car. Seeing the looks on their faces, looks of fear and trepidation, gave rise to a feeling she couldn't quite pinpoint. It wasn't sympathy, and it certainly wasn't regret, as she had feared at first. It was more along the lines of… wonder. Wonder that nameless, faceless people she had never before seen or interacted with could find her to be a threat to their very lives and wellbeing. It irked her, because how could people be so stupid- so arrogant, almost- as to think she would spend her time and energy trying to hurt them? The trains of thoughts of civilians were mysteries to her.

These days, when Jinx remembers that people once feared her as a civilian, she almost laughs. Surprisingly, no one fears her now. She'd thought for certain it would take several years at the very least for the civilians, police, and government of Jump to trust her. Somehow, though, after only ten months, they do.

The newspapers still go crazy after she goes into battle. It's no longer because she is the only girl in her profession; in fact, she's had to get used to interacting almost equally with boys and girls again after so many years of only dealing with the former. No, now the media loves her for being their new heroic darling, the one who saw the error of her ways and turned from the dark side to the light. Jinx is well aware that's not entirely accurate, or at least is heavily sugar-coated, but the over-simplification doesn't bother her nearly as much as she expected it to. In this strange, wonderful, difficult, new world, she finds most things don't bother her as much as she would have thought.

But one thing does still bother her. It's the looks on the civilians' faces when she passes them now, after putting a criminal in handcuffs and shaking hands with the police captain. Their eyes used to be full of fear, anger, and amazement that anyone could be so evil- a word that is thrown around all too casually these days in Jinx's opinion- but now they look at her with respect, gratitude, and trust. It is this last one that makes her stop and frown. After all, it was less than a year ago that she was robbing their banks and museums, destroying their cars, making a mess of their city. It was less than a year ago that their wellbeing was the last thing on her mind.

It was less than a year ago that they feared her.

Do civilians really lose and gain trust that quickly, she wonders. Do they really put so much faith in newspapers and news stations that they'll take their word for who is good or bad at face value? Do they really believe that where once she was pure evil, now she is pure good?

She isn't either. She never was. She'll never be.

And she wonders if she'll ever stop resenting the way civilians look at her, be her villain, hero, or something in between.

Her life may be different now, she knows, but some things never change.


	22. Beggar

**I want to say thank you again to everyone who's reviewed. Thanks for making me smile, guys! Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a year since I started this. That reminds me, Halloween's almost here! Anyone dressing up? I'm thinking back fondly on my Jinx costume from last year, but I'm going to be Toph from Avatar this year, so that'll be fun, too.**

**Disclaimer: I remember the days when I didn't use the word "disclaimer" in every other sentence. Those were the days. Anyway, I don't own Teen Titans, just in case there was some confusion there. **

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**022: Beggar**

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Reputations are a part of being human. And superheroes, no matter how much it may appear otherwise, are just as human as anyone else. Kid Flash had a reputation of his own, and not only that, but like many superheroes, he had two: one given to him by his peers, the other by his enemies. Among his friends and fellow crime-fighters, he was known for being an all-around good guy, the kind you could call when either your superhero or personal life was in shambles, the kind you could depend on, the kind that acted goofy but wasn't really, not when it counted. And the fact that he was one of the most human superheroes around gave his status as a confidant even more backup. His reputation among his adversaries was not quite as charming. He was known for being fast. But more than that, he was known for being annoying.

Kid Flash understood how his incessant talking during fights could be irritating. It wasn't enough that these criminals had been caught in the act, forced to fight or flee, and usually ended up in handcuffs; they had to undergo all this while enduring Flash's constant chattering. But that was part of the point- the more attention spent trying _not_ to get distracted by Flash's blabbering, the less attention spent on the fight. Besides that, talking kept Flash from getting nervous. And besides even that, Flash just liked to talk.

Sometimes, though, just plain _talking _wasn't enough. Sometimes, his talking called for a little of his reputation as a good, dependable guy to back it up.

Like when he was facing Jinx.

She hated it when he talked to her during fights, or at all, for that matter. Not the way other criminals hated it, the way it pestered them and made them grind their teeth together and wish they could smash his skull between their hands. The hate Jinx felt was deeper. She hated when he talked because when he talked to her he wasn't just talking- he was saying something. And she hated- _hated-_ listening to what he had to say. Which didn't mean, of course, that Flash was going to stop talking. Even if she claimed to have heard it all before, he wasn't going to give up on her without a fight.

"Jinx, come on, I just want to talk to you." The crate on the ground beside him in the hangar exploded upon contact with a bolt of pink energy. Kid Flash faked to his right before dashing back to his left, the pile of barrels where he'd originally been heading now a smoldering mass of splinters.

Jinx stood her ground, moving slowly forward when necessary but choosing more often to stay put and make him do all the work. After all, she hadn't even been committing a crime today. She'd intended on going through the hangar as a shortcut to get back to the HIVE Five, but somehow- she didn't put it past him that he'd been following her- Kid Flash had popped up out of nowhere to block her path. Jinx was annoyed that he'd cornered her again, but more than that she was tired after a long day, and tired enough that she wasn't planning on challenging him to a battle of wits as she usually would to in some small way get back at him for bothering her. She just wanted to deal with him and go home.

"Why?" Her eyes glowed softly as another hex lashed towards him before returning to their normal color. "Why do you want to talk to me?" She formed the words almost without needing to think, and certainly without backing them up with feeling; their dialogues had become all but scripted in their redundancy.

"Because I want to help you."

"I never asked for your help." Sometimes when she gave him this response he could hear the angry disbelief in her voice, could hear how she didn't really trust that he wanted to help her. But right now, she just sounded firm and matter-of-fact. She was reminding him that he'd sought her out, not the other way around, and that she wasn't planning on forgetting that.

He smirked, and she raised an eyebrow, her hands pausing at chest-level, her fingers still splayed.

"What?"

"You never _asked_ for my help, or you don't _need_ my help?"

Jinx narrowed her eyes. No matter how repetitive their conversations were, she hated when he tried to trip her up.

"I don't need _anyone's_ help," she clarified. And anyone else would have understood from her tone that she was not leaving this open to discussion. But this was Kid Flash, and he wasn't just anyone else.

"But you don't like your life. You don't like what you do."

She rolled her eyes.

"It's better than the alternative."

"Which is what?"

She sent a handful of shots at him before answering. And when she did answer, her answer, and her bluntness, surprised him.

"Being nothing."

Kid Flash paused as Jinx caught her breath, regarding her, puzzled, from a distance.

"You don't need to be a criminal in order to be someone." It was so obvious to him that it almost felt foolish and redundant to say it. He knew how smart and aware Jinx was, and it always took him aback a little on the occasions he'd hear her say something so juvenile and so clearly wrong. "There are other choices out there."

She laughed humorlessly.

"It's not like the world has offered me much, Flash. I've kind of got a limited amount of options." Her voice was jaded, and Kid Flash got the sense that what she was saying was as much an uncontestable truth to her as was his belief to him that no matter what the world had or had not offered her before, it was offering her everything now. "Beggars can't be choosers."

"You can always choose to change." Another uncontestable truth. "You can always choose to be someone different."

"'You can always choose to change,'" she repeated with more than just a trace of mocking and cynicism. "You really believe that?"

Kid Flash didn't know if she was looking for an answer, but he decided to give her one anyway, just in case his position on the topic was unclear.

"Of course."

She shook her head, keeping her eyes on his.

"You're wrong."

Kid Flash sighed, tying not to let his frustration show.

"Look, Jinx, I know it's difficult sometimes, but there's-"

"You know?"

He paused, and when he brought his gaze back to her he saw that her expression had become icy, her eyes hard. Kid Flash knew he'd hit something deep, but he knew it was too late to back out now. Not that he would have.

"You think you know what it's like to have no prospects, to have no choices, to have nothing?" She shook her head again, and Kid Flash saw any desire to give him the benefit of the doubt today fade.

"Jinx, I didn't-"

"You don't know what it's like," she cut him off sharply. "You don't know what it's like to have to fend for yourself every single day and have _no one_ to back you up and _nothing_ to fall back on and _no_ other options." She moved towards him, closing the distance between them in quick strides. "Because the moment you try to change," she snapped her fingers, "you lose _everything._ There _are _no do over's. You lose _everything._" Taking a final step toward him, she raised her chin so they were eye-to-eye. "And you lose every. Single. Time." She narrowed her eyes. "Did you know _that?_"

They let her question hover in the air between them, filling the space between her cold eyes and his stunned ones. Kid Flash opened his mouth to say something, to contradict everything she thought to be true, but the words didn't come to him. Jinx saw his resolve begin to crumble, and a corner of her mouth turned up in a smile entirely devoid of happiness. She started to walk away, and he turned to look after her as she brushed past him.

"Maybe things always work out for superheroes," she said, her tone almost condescending, "but for the rest of us, the rest of us real people, they don't. There aren't always choices." She stopped at the exit and turned her head over her shoulder, just enough so he could see her profile, but not quite enough so he could meet her eyes. It came to him that it wasn't only condescension he heard in her voice, but a sad resolve. "And beggars can't be choosers."

She looked forward and left. And with nothing to say to counteract her words, Kid Flash couldn't find it in himself to stop her.


	23. False

**Happy Chanukah! Here's a gift for all of you: a new chapter. And hey, it took me less than two months to update this time. That's... slightly better.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. **

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**023: False**

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Jinx drew the blinds back from the window slightly. Standing at an angle so the blinds obscured her from view from the street, she peered out the window. And frowned. The car was still there, and the two men were still inside it. Jinx had hoped she was reading too much into it when she noticed them park two hours ago and an hour later they still hadn't gotten out of the car. But really she'd been sure right away, if not because of the car's all too inconspicuous grey paint then because the men in the car had been reading the newspaper for three hours now and they still hadn't turned a single page. If this wasn't been spied on, Jinx didn't know what was.

Jinx heard the front door open in the other room and Kid Flash's footsteps started making their way to the kitchen. Entirely calmly, almost matter-of-factly, she called to him without turning around.

"We're being watched."

Flash's footsteps halted.

"What?"

Jinx didn't have time to repeat herself before suddenly he was beside her. Stepping aside to let him have better access to the slim strip of window not concealed by the shades, she motioned with her chin to the car parked a few doors up the street. Flash focused his gaze on them as Jinx took a step back and crossed her arms.

"How long have they been there?" Flash asked. Jinx didn't miss the gravity of his voice, but she wasn't concerned by it, knowing it to be a normal reaction to the situation.

"A little over three hours. They drove up and parked just after you left."

Flash cursed softly, and Jinx raised an eyebrow. She didn't think she'd ever heard him swear before. She noticed the color had drained from his face, and he was biting his lip in clear worry.

"They don't look particularly dangerous," Jinx offered. And they really didn't. Not when compared to her and Flash, at least. It was strange, she observed, that he seemed so much more anxious about this than she did. "But I can't tell who they are," she continued. "I've never seen them before."

Flash still had his eyes on the men in the car. The hand he held the drapes back with clenched into a fist. He let out an exhale before dropping the shade, and Jinx couldn't help but feel there was a sense of defeat in the action.

Jinx wrinkled her eyebrows. "What's wrong? Please tell me this isn't the first time you've been spied on."

When he didn't answer her, Jinx reached out a hand and put it gently on his shoulder. She didn't know what had him so distraught; maybe this really was the first time he'd been spied on. But that just didn't seem likely. Then again, what else could have gotten him so upset so quickly?

"Flash? Are you okay? Look, we can always get back up if you really don't think we—"

"Jinx." Flash sighed and turned around, her hand dropping off his shoulder. He looked pointedly at her, and she was taken aback by the distress on his face. "It's not— it's not that."

Frowning, Jinx asked, "Then what's the matter? I know it's not optimal to be _spied_ on, but…" She shrugged. "This is sort of what you signed up for." A thought suddenly occurred to her. "Do you know who they are?"

"I've never seen them before, but…" Flash trailed off, growling in frustration and running his hands roughly through his hair. Turning back to the window and pulling the shade back, he said angrily, "They said they'd give me more time!"

Jinx raised her eyebrows. "You do know who they are." When Flash didn't respond to her assertion, only muttered the same sentence again, Jinx asked, "More time for what?"

Flash was silent for a moment, and when he spoke he did so quietly. "I was hoping they'd give me more time to talk to you."

"About _what?"_ Jinx asked again, having a hard time holding onto her irritation. "What do you need to talk to me about? Who are those people? Why are they _watching _us?"

Flash took another quick glance out the window before pulling the shade shut and starting to pace slowly. He kept his eyes on the ground, fiercely refusing to look at Jinx, who stood with crossed arms as she watched his contemplative trajectory around the room.

"Jinx, you know when you decided to switch sides, and we talked to the Titans and the police and they agreed that your working with us would act like community service or something? They said that if you helped us they wouldn't press charges?"

Jinx didn't like where this was going. Tentatively, she said, "Yeah…"

Flash stopped walking and turned towards her. He wore a look on his face she'd never seen before, and it took her a moment to decipher it as a look of pain and apology.

"The police changed their minds."

Her eyes widened slightly before narrowing, and Flash didn't miss how they'd began glowing the dangerous pink that meant she was angry. _"What?"_

Flash swallowed. "I was going to tell you soon. I just… I didn't want to think about it."

"So you just decided to let them show up and put me in handcuffs?" Jinx threw her head back in frustration before pointing an accusing finger at him. "This is _exactly_ what I told you was going to happen."

"I thought it was going to work out," Flash said, trying to pacify her even as he felt guilty for going on the defensive.

"But it _didn't! _It didn't work out, and now I'm cornered and they're going to arrest me!" She shook her head, unable to even formulate her anger into words. "And I fell for it," she spat out a moment later. "I knew this wouldn't work out. I _knew_ this wouldn't work out but I still fell for it!" Slamming her fist into the wall, where a web of cracks began to grow as the pink aura around her hand swelled, she let out a scream of rage. "I still fell for this lie!" she shouted again. "I knew it was all a lie, I knew it was all false, and I still fell for it!"

Flash was shaking his head frantically as he moved towards her.

"No," he answered, trying to sound like he was sure of this fact but expending more energy wondering about its truth himself. "It wasn't a lie. That's not the way it is at all."

When she didn't respond he put a hand on her arm which she immediately yanked away from him before taking a decisive step back.

"What way is it, then?" she shouted angrily. With more than a hint of sarcasm she added, "Why don't you explain it to me?"

Flash regarded her silently for a moment. She crossed her arms again and kept her eyes pinned on his, waiting for her answer. Finally he spoke, giving her the only answer he had even as he knew it wasn't anything that would give her reassurance.

"The police were in over their heads after the whole Brotherhood of Evil thing. Since almost every criminal had been captured they had more work than they could handle," he began. "I guess they decided it'd be easier to not have to worry about you then, too. But a couple weeks ago they finished dealing with everyone involved with the Brotherhood and they had the time to look at your file again and… well, you really got a lot done when you were a criminal." He looked at her for confirmation, or maybe for refutation. She didn't say anything. "They decided it wasn't enough that you're working with us now. They called the Titans, and the Titans called me." He paused. "I talked to the police. I asked them to reconsider. I asked them to let me talk to you first." Flash shook his head, and again said, "They said they'd give me more time."

"So they just changed their minds?" she asked derisively. "Or maybe they were planning this all along?"

Flash looked over to the window, his eyes falling on the place where he knew the car to be. A moment later he said quietly, "I don't know."

Jinx threw her hands up in the air. "You don't _get _to not know, Flash! This is what I told you would happen even after you promised me it wouldn't, so you don't get to tell me this is news to you, too!"

He opened his mouth to say something, but a moment later all that came out was a sigh. Flash closed his eyes as he rubbed his forehead. Finally, he said, "I'm sorry."

Jinx let out a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a verbal role of the eyes. "You're sorry."

"I don't know what else I can tell you." Walking over to the couch, he let himself fall onto the edge of it and looked earnestly at her. "Besides that I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. I know that doesn't change anything. I just…" He tried to put a smile on his face but it barely reached his mouth, let alone his eyes. "I just want you to know that."

Jinx was still angry. She was still _outraged_. But she was also a little scared. And hearing Flash's words, knowing that he really hadn't had any intention of letting this happen, she decided that as outraged as she was, she would rather be outraged while someone's arms were around her than outraged and alone. The anger burning on her face giving way to worry, she let a breath out slowly and made her way across the room, sitting down next to Flash.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, and Jinx nodded.

"I know."

Flash took one of her hands in his, and Jinx sighed and put her head on his shoulder. "I'm still mad," she said, and she was. She wanted him to know that.

He put an arm around her shoulders. "I know." Then he added, "You have the right to be," and even though she already knew this it still made her feel better.

They stayed that way for a while, just sitting together even as they knew the men in the car outside were still watching them, waiting to see if Jinx would try to escape, maybe, or to see if she'd contact anyone she shouldn't be in contact with anymore. It made Jinx feel stronger, more in control, to know that she was aware of the men's presence while they still thought themselves undetected. But even though she and Flash weren't speaking, thoughts were flying through Jinx's head faster even than Flash could run. When she couldn't stand to hold the thoughts in her head any longer, Jinx asked quietly, much more calmly than she felt, "What's going to happen now?"

Flash rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand, and the roughness of his skin surprised her as it always did. "They'll want to take you to the station, probably," he answered just as quietly, adding, "before the trial."

"Before the trial," she repeated. "And after that. What happens after that?"

"It depends if you're found guilty or not."

"If I'm found guilty," she clarified. "What happens if I'm found guilty?"

"You'll go to jail, I guess." Flash didn't like the feeling of the words in his mouth, and he unconsciously squeezed her hand, trying to draw her closer. "But we won't let that happen." He lifted his shoulder slightly so that she raised her head and looked at him. "We won't let that happen."Jinx let out a sound of doubt, but it wasn't the same mocking sound from before. "How?"

"We just won't. We've got so much on our side. We've got so many people who can testify for you: people you've saved, the Titans, even members of the police we've worked with. We can show them that you're not a threat. You won't go to jail." He smiled reassuringly, and this time it even reached his eyes. "You won't."

There were still so many other reasons why she very well could end up in jail, and she was still angry at this betrayal, but Flash seemed so sure, and his eyes were so hopeful, that Jinx couldn't help but feel a little hopeful, too. She put her head back on his shoulder and tried to hold onto that hope.

Meanwhile, the men in the car outside were still watching.


	24. Happy

**This one isn't my best work, I'm afraid. It's too short and too rushed, but I went over it as many times as I could and at this point I don't know what more I can do with it. Oh, but I am so totally the kind of person that would make a list ****like this.**

**Thank you to everyone who's put this story on their favorites or alerts lists, and especially to those who have reviewed. Reviews are always appreciated!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. **

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**024: Happy**

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The night Jinx started the list hadn't been particularly different than any other night. It was one or two in the morning when she'd returned to the HIVE Five Tower, tired and grumpy after a string of unsuccessful jewel heists. Jinx didn't think she was overreacting when she concluded that lately it seemed that "unsuccessful" had had to be tacked onto the beginning of most of her team's endeavors. Collapsing onto her bed without even turning on the light that night, she found that her pillow had grown sharp and pointy during the day. Muttering a string of curses, Jinx sat up, grabbed the now crushed rose from its place on her pillow, and unceremoniously dumped it, thorns and all, in the trash can. Then she took a blank piece of paper from on the desk next to her and, venting her frustration from under the haze of sleep-deprivation, wrote _Things I Hate_ at the top of the page before writing underneath, _Number __1:__ Rose__s._

Over the next few weeks Jinx added onto the list whenever the inspiration struck, and the record of her frustrations grew. It was satisfying in a perverse sort of way to see all the things that annoyed her put down in writing. _Number 7: __Red hair.__ Number 11: __People trying to make me smile_. _Number 18: __People just _showing up_ unexpectedly. _Eventually, sensing a trend in her list, and getting tired of writing "people" when all of those "people" were in reality one very annoying _person,_ she scrawled down, _Number 32: Kid Flash._

By the time she'd gotten to that point, a month or so after she'd transcribed her hatred of roses, Jinx had had her fill of the HIVE Five, of Madame Rouge, of expending energy on a lifestyle she didn't know if she still wanted to live. One evening while her team was out doing God knew what, she collapsed onto her bed and read the list she'd so dutifully worked on. The list wasn't supposed to mean anything; it was just supposed to be a way to let out her irritation with the world. But it became suddenly overwhelming as she looked at the numbered items one after another after another, until all the little things she couldn't stand became one large burden that she felt would suffocate her if she didn't do something about it. Angry, frustrated tears were running down her face as she folded the list and hurriedly packed her duffel bag with just what she absolutely needed.

By the time her team got back two hours later, her room looked like it'd been torn apart, and Jinx was gone.

xxx

There was still a box sitting in her closet that Jinx had yet to unpack. It had been just over four months since she'd moved from her dingy apartment into the spare room in Flash's considerably nicer apartment, and most of her belongings had already been put away. She hadn't brought that much to begin with, but somehow this small box still hadn't been opened. When Jinx noticed it hidden in the back of the closet while getting dressed one morning she contemplated it for a moment and then, with a little time to kill, dragged it out and ripped it open.

It'd been so long since she'd packed the box that Jinx didn't even remember what was in it. Sifting through its contents, she remembered why the box had remained unopened for so long; it was full of papers and a few smudged drawings she'd done with the limited art supplies she'd had at the apartment she'd lived in before moving in with Flash. Essentially, it was junk. The papers were primarily notes she'd taken as leader of the HIVE Five. When she'd left she hadn't been entirely sure that she wouldn't be returning, and so hadn't wanted to risk them falling into the wrong hands. At this point she knew they should be destroyed, and she folded them and put them on her bedside table, making a mental note to burn them later today.

The drawings weren't awful, but they were a far cry from her best work. She'd been able to afford only cheap colored pencils and rudimentary paper at the time, and most of the drawings were unfinished; evidence of her frustration and impatience. She flipped through them, shrugged, and put them in the drawer with the rest of her artwork. They weren't very good pieces, but Jinx didn't like to throw any of them away. She hated to admit to anything so sappy, but they felt like pieces of her, and getting rid of them felt like erasing part of her past.

Jinx returned to the now empty box and picked it up, beginning to break it down to put with the recycling. But as she picked it up and turned it upside down, a loose piece of paper floated to the floor. Jinx picked the paper up, expecting it to be a page of notes that had somehow gotten separated from the rest. But these weren't the notes she'd expected them to be.

_Things I Hate._

Jinx smiled. She'd forgotten about this list, but now that she saw it again she remembered it completely. Sitting down on the edge of her bed, Jinx began reading down the list.

_Number 1: Rose__s.__ Number 5: Getting stupid "romantic" e-mails. Number 7: __Red hair. __Number 9: __The colors orange and yellow. __Number 11: __People trying to make me smile_. _Number 14: Finding notes in my pockets with little lightning symbols on them. __Number 18: People just _showing up_ unexpectedly._

It was funny reading this now, what felt like an eternity since she'd written it. After leaving her team she'd stopped adding items to the list, choosing instead to shove it in the back of a drawer and forget about it. She laughed as her eyes fell on a few of the items, and especially when she saw the final one.

_Number 32: Kid Flash. _

Something made Jinx glance at her watch at that moment, and seeing what time it was she hurriedly folded the list and put it in the drawer in her bedside table. Grabbing her keys, Jinx left her room and made her way to the front door. Flash would be finished going over some reports with the police soon, and she was supposed to be meeting him downtown. As she headed down the sidewalk, a single thought made the smile on her face broaden.

Since when had the list of things she hated turned into the list of things that made her happiest?


	25. Cancer

**I've got to say, I've been dreading this chapter since I first started this challenge. I mean, what are you supposed to write when the prompt is "cancer"? But I'm pretty happy with how this ended up. I'm also recently taken out vendettas against many things, and near the top of my list is cancer. It's going DOWN.**

**Takes place sometime before Deception. And Brother Blood never fails to amuse me.**

**Disclaimer: I still own nothing. Go figure, right?**

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**025: Cancer**

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Jinx can't help but feel a little nervous as she walks to Brother Blood's office. She doesn't think she's done anything wrong, but with Brother Blood you can never be too sure. As brilliant as he is, Jinx has come to realize that he's also a little… eccentric, and every now and then he'll fly off the handle at the littlest provocation. But even if she is in for a lecture, it's not like she can choose when to respond to Brother Blood's summons and when not to. Brother Blood is the headmaster, and Jinx is the student, so when he calls for her, she complies.

When Jinx reaches Brother Blood's tall, imposing office door, she takes a moment to straighten her dress and take a deep breath before knocking confidently.

"Come in."

So she does.

Brother Blood is sitting behind his desk, which is sometimes buried under files and loose papers, but today is tidy. Instead, a single file sits on the sand-blasted copper before him. He smiles stiffly as she enters, and motions to the chair across from him.

"Good afternoon, Jinx. Please, take a seat."

"Thank you, Headmaster." Jinx sits down cautiously. She really wishes she knew why she was here.

"I've been looking through your file, Jinx," he begins, motioning towards the papers on the desk, and a pair of pink eyes glances at the papers before meeting his again. "You have some impressive achievements, you know. First place three years in a row on the Doomsday Device Competition, straight A's on all of your assignments, your attack patterns are consistently superlative…" He looks up at her. "That's some truly outstanding work, Jinx."

She lets the smallest hint of a smile creep onto her lips. Maybe he just wants to commend her for being a good student?

"Thank you, Headmaster."

"Of course, you've also had your share of bad marks."

The smile slides right off her face. Jinx opens her mouth to respond, finds she has no idea what to say, and closes her mouth again. Brother Blood is unfazed, and carries on.

"You somehow managed to fail your final exam and get sent back. Granted, this happened before my time at the HIVE Academy, but nonetheless that is exceedingly disappointing, especially for someone of your usual abilities."

Jinx feels the most compelling urge to remind Brother Blood that it was not only her that failed, but both of her teammates as well. Instead she nods slightly and says, "I was unprepared, Headmaster. I shouldn't have used Attack Pattern Alpha more than once, and I should have taken the time to reassess the situation once the targets regrouped."

Brother Blood nods. "Yes, you should have."

Jinx again has the craving to make a retort, but she keeps her mouth shut. No need to get herself into further trouble than she apparently is already in.

"It is always disappointing when a student fails their final exam," Brother Blood continues, "but no more so than when that student is at the top of their class with a bright future ahead of them. It signifies a failure of both the Academy and the student." He pauses and looks her in the eye. "A very _disappointing _failure."

If Jinx could have just one wish it would be the power to sink into the chair and disappear forever. She forces herself to keep holding his gaze; averting her eyes would be a further sign of weakness.

"However." Brother Blood looks down briefly at the file still lying open on his desk. "Sometimes failures can lead to… opportunities."

Jinx raises her eyebrows, and hopes that maybe, just maybe, there will be a silver lining to this conversation.

"The HIVE Academy's mission statement is very clear," Brother Blood says.

Jinx nods before reciting the statement from memory. "To educate and shape students into first class criminals with the ability to carry out nefarious actions anywhere in the world as either an individual or member of a team." She has had the HIVE's mission statement memorized since the day she was accepted.

Brother Blood nods. "Indeed. But recently…" He pauses and frowns, hunting for words. "Recently I have decided that while the majority of HIVE graduates ought to set out on their own, it would be beneficial to keep a handful of students affiliated with the Academy after graduation. And while these students could work individually, I believe the better option would be for them to form a group." He raises his eyebrows. "A team, if you will."

"That sounds like a very good idea, Headmaster." Jinx doesn't know what kind of reply Brother Blood is looking for, so she is relived when he continues on with little attention to her comment.

"This team would be stationed somewhere in the nearby vicinity. Steel City, or Jump City, perhaps. It wouldn't be a large team, but it would need to be made up of students able to work well together. The objectives of the team, besides being a branch of the Academy, would largely be up to the team itself." He pauses. "This team would need a leader."

Jinx bites her lip to keep from smirking. Well _obviously_ it would need a leader.

"Jinx." For a moment she fears he caught the smirk she was trying to hold back. But then he continues and all Jinx can do is try to keep her mouth from dropping. "I want you to be the leader."

"What?" The entirely juvenile word leaps out of her mouth before she can stop it, but she doesn't really care. "You want _me_ to be the leader? To have my own team?"

Brother Blood nods curtly, and if Jinx weren't so shocked she wouldn't have missed the amused glint in his eye at her excitement.

"You're coming up to your final exam again. I trust this time you won't fail."

Jinx shakes her head. "No, Headmaster." She is passing her final exam if it's the last thing she does.

"And you consistently display exemplary knowledge of fighting techniques, electronics, and the arts of blackmail and the like." He gestures nonchalantly towards her file and then glances at her. "Unless, of course, you don't want your own team."

"No, Headmaster, that's not it at all, I just didn't expect…" The words are tumbling out faster than Jinx can organize them. She stops and takes a deep breath. When she begins again she is composed. "I'm honored, Headmaster. I would love to lead a team branched from the Academy. I'm just surprised you picked me. I'm…" She forces a nervous smile. "I'm just surprised."

Brother Blood smiles, and its surprising warmth calms her a little.

"Your grades aren't the only reason I chose you for this position. It's more than that. What is it that makes a good criminal great?"

"Knowing how to blend well-known tactics with personal strengths."

"That's right. You know the material, but more importantly you know how to use it to your advantage. Take, for example, your acrobatic abilities. They allow you speed and flexibility that many other students lack. Or, for instance, your powers." Brother Blood leans forward, putting his elbows on the desk and holding up two fists before his face. "Your powers are like a cancer, Jinx. They start in one isolated area, but then expand and spread and destroy everything in their path. Excellent for both one-on-one combat or against multiple opponents." He opens his fists slowly, allowing his fingers to splay. "Like a cancer." He sits back. "Do you see what I mean?"

Jinx nods, and he continues, but she can't help her attention from staying on his last point. She has never been paid a compliment of this magnitude before, and she knows she won't ever forget it. Her powers are like a cancer, able to spread and destroy, and she knows how to control them to her benefit. The smile that has been on her face spreads a little wider as she thinks of it. But at the same time, somewhere in the back of her mind, she is disquieted. Jinx has just been given the opportunity of a lifetime, with a compliment to match, but something about his last words seem off. She forces the thought out of her head and turns her full attention back to Brother Blood, who is informing her of what the proceedings from now on will be.

When they are done discussing technicalities, and it has finally started to sink in that _she's getting her own team_, Brother Blood stands up and Jinx does the same.

"I'm very much looking forward to working with you in the coming weeks before your final exam and afterwards when you can start putting your team together. It will be a lot of work, but I think you're up to it, and I know it will benefit the HIVE greatly."

Jinx smiles. "Thank you so much, Headmaster. I can't tell you how much this means to me."

"I'll call for you again after final exams to discuss who you would like to be in your team."

"Yes, Headmaster."

Jinx opens the door and steps out into the hallway, closing the door gently behind her before letting the grin take over and walking happily down the hallway; if she was the skipping type she'd skip, but she's never skipped before in her life and she's not going to start now. But still, even as she's never been happier in her life, even as she's mentally counting off the days until final exams, even as she's deciding who she wants to be in her team… something feels off.

_Your powers are like a cancer, Jinx. Like a cancer._

It was a compliment, she tells herself firmly. A compliment.

_Like a cancer._

A compliment.

_Like a cancer._

A compliment.

_Like cancer._

xxx

"Dude, you almost lost to _Mumbo?_" Beast Boy crosses his arms behind his head and props his feet on the coffee table. "All you've gotta do is break his wand. I would've thought that'd be easy for Mr. I'm-So-Fast-It's-Scary."

Kid Flash rolls his eyes good-naturedly and points an accusing finger at Beast Boy from across the table. He and Jinx stopped by the Tower to help compile information on a recent string of arsons, but they finished almost an hour ago, and their conversation has de-evolved, as it usually does, to friendly conversation. There was a time— a long time— that Jinx hated being anywhere in the vicinity of the Titans, but now, nine months after joining their side, it's easier to be around them. She sits in the chair beside Kid Flash, a content look on her face, actually enjoying the banter she used to dread.

"If I'm not mistaken," Kid Flash says, "you once failed to break his wand and got sucked into his hat."

"Pfft. But you have super speed. Couldn't you just jog by him and swipe it out of his hands?"

"Not when he's used a spell that freezes you."

Beast Boy raises an eyebrow. "Since when does Mumbo have a spell that freezes you?"

Kid Flash shrugs. "It's new, I guess."

Smirking, Beast Boy replies, "And he used it on you?" He starts laughing. "Then how did you stop him?"

"I believe you've met my friend Jinx."

At her name Jinx stiffens a little. She's okay being around the Titans now, but she still doesn't want any attention on her.

Beast Boy turns towards her, and she feels better when she notices that his expression doesn't change when his switches from looking at Kid Flash to looking at her.

"So what'd you do?" he asks eagerly. "How'd you take him out?"

Jinx shrugs lightly. "I just hexed him."

Kid Flash snorts. "You did not 'just hex him.' You totally gave him what for." Jinx listens as Kid Flash goes on to describe, in vivid detail, how she evaded Mumbo's new spell, got Kid Flash out of harm's way, rendered Mumbo harmless, and all but shattered his wand. When Kid Flash finishes his story Beast Boy applauds, but Jinx just shrugs again.

"It was no big deal," she assures him, and it really wasn't. She's faced tougher than that many times before, on both sides of the law. "And he'll get his wand back or make a new one soon enough."

"So what?" Beast Boy asks. "You've gotta take it one step at a time. They always fix their toys, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't kick their butts when you've got the chance." Kid Flash nods in agreement, and Beast Boy gives her a thumbs up. "Nice one, Jinx. Very nice."

Jinx smiles, and a moment later their discussion moves on to something else. But without her even realizing it the smile stays on her face, and when she does notice it ten or fifteen minutes later, it suddenly hits her why her expression has remained the same. Because even though no one will remember their conversation tomorrow, even though it was only a passing remark, even though her victory over Mumbo wasn't really that momentous... something feels right.

_Nice one, Jinx. Very nice._

Oh, she thinks to herself. So that's what a real compliment sounds like.


	26. Pickpocket

**Well look who decided to show her face again after _quite_ the hiatus. Again, I apologize for my lengthy, unexcused absence. And as always, thank you thank you _thank you_ to everyone who has read, alert-ed, favorite-ed, or reviewed. You guys are the best.**

**This chapter is so morally ambiguous, ohmigod.**

**Disclaimer: I think I thought up a witty disclaimer while I was eating b****reakfast this morning, but alas, I can't remember it. I own nothing. Pretty cool, huh?**

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**026: Pickpocket**

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It was crowded downtown. The whole of Jump seemed to have come out today. People swarmed in droves over the sidewalks and across the streets. No one noticed the girl in jeans and a hooded sweatshirt standing at the bus stop outside City Hall. Which was good, because that was sort of the point.

Jinx pulled her hand out of her pocket— civilian clothes were necessary for the mission— and checked her watch for the umpteenth time, momentarily tearing her eyes away from the entrance to City Hall in the process. She was sick of standing out here and was bored out of her mind with nothing to do. Just as her eyes fell on her watch Robin's voice came through her earpiece and flooded her ear.

"Barnes should be coming out of City Hall within the next five minutes."

Jinx raised an eyebrow and shoved her hand back in her pocket.

"Jinx?"

"I heard you. I'm just trying to figure out where the hidden cameras are."

"What?"

Jinx smirked. She could imagine Robin's face right about now. Honestly, that boy had no sense of humor.

"I was just checking the time," she explained.

"Oh." And then, "There are no hidden cameras."

Rolling her eyes, Jinx said, "I know."

"Anyway, expect Barnes to exit City Hall within five minutes," Robin repeated. "You remember the plan?"

"Yes."

"Let me hear it, then."

"Robin, I remember the plan."

"Then _let me hear it._"

Jinx sighed exasperatedly. "When Barnes comes out of City Hall he's going to walk down Fifth Avenue. I walk _up_ Fifth Avenue and when we pass each other I pretend to bump into him and get the zip drive from his coat pocket. Then I continue walking up Fifth until I get to Montgomery Street. I meet Cyborg there and we take the T-Car back to the Tower."

"Right. Now remember, there's a small chance the drive may not be in Barnes' coat pocket, or on him at all. In that case you—"

"Remind me again how this is legal, oh leader of mine?" Jinx interrupted. Meanwhile, her eyes were back on the massive doors of City Hall, but no one was going in or out.

"It's legal because we have a search warrant."

"Right, but does pick-pocketing a member of the board of supervisors really fall under the rights a search warrant gives us?"

"Jinx…" She could imagine him rubbing his forehead in frustration and counting to three before answering her. "Barnes is corrupt. Last year most of the money he was allotted mysteriously disappeared, and four months later he was the proud owner of a new private jet. For years he's been suspected of having ties with organized crime. More illegal drugs pop up in his district than in all the other districts in Jump combined. We know all this, but until now we've been unable to find any hard evidence against him. He covers his tracks too well and has too many friends in high places. But two weeks ago a friend of his informed us that he keeps records of all his illegal transactions in one place: on the zip drive he always keeps in his coat pocket and never lets out of his sight."

Robin paused, and Jinx crossed her arms. She wondered sometimes if he had these speeches written down or if he was just really good at memorizing them. When she didn't say anything he sighed and continued.

"We have a search warrant that allows us to obtain the zip drive anytime in the next two days, but I can't believe Barnes hasn't prepared for just this situation. I guarantee you, the moment we show Barnes our warrant he'll destroy the zip drive and pretend that it never existed. There's no other way to get hold of it; we have to take it. And we _need_ that zip drive."

Jinx shrugged.

"It still sounds like stealing to me."

"Listen, I don't like it any more than you do, but it's the only way."

"Lucky for you you've got an ex-thief at your disposal."

"Lucky for me."

Jinx was about to respond when a tall, heavy-set man wearing a suit and coat walked out of the doors of City Hall. A smile tried to rise to Jinx's lips, but she pressed it down. This was her man.

He was walking with someone else, immersed in their conversation. Jinx was a little disappointed; it was certainly easier to lift valuables when the target was occupied, but it wasn't nearly as tricky. Hero work generally didn't require the subtlety that villain work did, and sometimes she missed the challenge.

"Jinx, are you there?"

She ignored Robin's voice as she watched Barnes move towards her. When he was about thirty feet away she began walking towards him, keeping him in the corner of her eye as she veered to the left. Her hands were in her jacket pockets, but her right hand was poised at the opening, ready to strike.

"And it's not the budget crisis itself that frustrates me," Barnes was saying.

They were twenty feet apart.

"It's the fact that everyone's berating _me_ for being wealthy."

Jinx started walking faster. Just before she was beside him she looked away, giving herself an excuse when she stumbled into his side.

"I mean, what do they expect me to do…?"

In the few seconds she was against him Jinx's hand darted out of her jacket pocket and into his. Her fingers closed around the zip drive and retreated into her pocket. She mumbled an apology as she continued walking past him. Barnes barely noticed; he was still absorbed in his conversation.

"…give them the money out of my pocket?"

Jinx wrapped her hand tighter around the small piece of technology that was worth so much. And continuing up Fifth Avenue, she couldn't help but laugh.

xxx

"Nice work, Jinx. This will give us the evidence we need to put Barnes behind bars." Robin handed the zip drive to Cyborg, who inserted it into the computer and began the process of getting through its security systems. "I appreciate your help."

Jinx nodded. "No problem." The whole event still didn't feel completely legal to her, but she didn't particularly care. Since switching sides Jinx had found that her actions being legal didn't interest her so much as her actions being right. And if obtaining a certain piece of evidence reminded her more than a little of her former line of work, well, so be it. Especially if the oh-so-righteous Titans gave her the go-ahead.

From beside her, Kid Flash frowned. "You're _sure_ this is legal?"

"I'm sure, Flash." Robin smiled at him. "Don't worry. I would have done it myself, but Jinx has a little more expertise in the area."

Kid Flash looked from Robin to Jinx and then rolled his eyes. "Fine. Whatever. Let's go home."

xxx

"So was that weird?"

Jinx glanced at Kid Flash as they walked through Jump City Park. She was still wearing her civilian clothes, and he had changed into his, as well. It was the middle of a Tuesday, and though it had been crowded downtown it was mostly empty here. Still, if one of them was wearing civvies it was a good idea for the other to do so as well. They kept their voices down slightly as they walked slowly along the path.

"Was what weird?"

"You know. Pick-pocketing. Was it weird to do it again?"

Jinx shrugged. "No. Not really."

"Was it scary? Were you worried you'd forgotten how to do it?"

Jinx laughed. "Sorry to break it to you, Flash, but I definitely haven't forgotten how to pickpocket."

They walked for a minute or two in silence, but Jinx knew better than to think Kid Flash had dropped the subject. Finally, he asked, "Is there a trick to it?"

"A trick to pick-pocketing?"

"Yeah."

She shook her head. "No, there's no trick to it. It's easy."

"Was it always easy for you?"

Jinx made a non-committal gesture with her hand. "I guess I probably wasn't great at it in the very beginning. But I caught on pretty fast." She shrugged, then added, "With a little training, it's easy."

Kid Flash raised an eyebrow. "Training? You have to train to be a pickpocket?"

She looked at him. "Of course. You were trained to put things back, right?"

"Put things back?" He cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if something is stolen it has to be found. That's what you were trained to do, right? To put things back?"

Kid Flash nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess so. I never thought about it that way before, but, yeah. I guess I was trained to put things back."

"Well, I was trained to take things away."

Kid Flash laughed. "My little pickpocket." Then he reached out and grabbed her hand. They walked in silence for a few moments before Flash looked over at her and smiled.

"I'm glad you put things back now."

Jinx returned his smile. She moved nearer to him, closing the gap between them.

"Yeah. Me, too."


	27. Reverse

**Oh snap, an update. Who would've thought? Many, many thanks, as always, to readers and reviewers alike. You guys quite literally rock my socks. **

**...I want my socks back.**

**Disclaimer: There are those who own Teen Titans. And then there is me. Contrary to popular belief, we are not one and the same.**

**

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**027: Reverse**

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She hears him before she sees him. The scuff of sneakers against cement, a jacket being brushed free of wrinkles, and she knows it's him. She knows it just as she knows that he could approach her silently if he wanted. But he never does. There are always the telltale signs— telltale sounds— of his advance, and she knows he does it on purpose. Because he's cocky, she tells herself. Because he wants to annoy her. _Because he likes her_, and the thought makes her feel sick and giddy all at the same time, until she's not really sure where one ends and the other begins.

"Hey," he says. She always lets him speak first because she doesn't want to come off as eager to talk to him. And yes, she is aware that only a very eager person would think it through so much beforehand, thank you very much. But he'll never know what goes on in her head, so it really doesn't matter. (Except that lately it seems he does know, so maybe it really does matter.)

"You shouldn't be here," she says. He's still standing a few feet behind her, but she can imagine him crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

"Nice to see you, too."

"I mean it, Flash. You shouldn't be here."

There are footsteps, and then he's beside her, lifting his folded arms onto the wall in front of them and leaning over to place his chin on top of his wrists. They stand there silently, and she chances a dart of her eyes towards his face before looking ahead again. A moment later he stage-whispers, "What are we looking at?"

An aggravated sigh. "That," she says, and she points to a building across the street. She could at least put up a token fight before answering him, but he always wheedles it out of her in the end anyway. It saves time and energy to just answer him the first time.

"'Bingham Brothers Jewelry,'" he reads, squinting to make out the small lettering on the sign. He grins. "Fancy."

She rolls her eyes and doesn't respond. A moment later he's stage-whispering again.

"Why are we on top of a building?"

"Better vantage point."

"Ah." He glances around the roof they're standing on, looking over his shoulder at the door thirty feet behind them as if he didn't just walk through it five minutes ago. With a satisfied nod, he turns back to the street below.

There is silence again, but if she's learned anything about him it's that he's never quiet for long. Once he gets talking he never shuts up; he's like the freaking Duracell bunny. (She told him that once, and then for a week every time he showed up he was wearing a pair of bunny ears. She's learned to be more careful with what she lets slip.) But the seconds tick by, until not only have sixty of them passed, but she realizes she is actually _counting the seconds_, and that is so far from cool she might as well have a fever. She's not the kind of person who minds long silences, but whenever he goes this long without talking she always gets nervous that he's died or is planning some awful prank at her expense or something.

She purses her lips and repeats, "You shouldn't be here."

With a content sigh, he rearranges his arms so that his elbow is balanced on the wall, his chin propped in his hand. "Yeah, but aren't you glad that I am?" She doesn't need to look at him to know he's grinning at her. A long time ago she learned not to dignify stupid questions with responses, so she doesn't say a thing. But a second later he's poking her in the arm. "Jinx."

"What?"

"I said, aren't you glad that I am?"

Finally, she turns to look at him, and no surprise— he's grinning like she's just admitted her undying love for him or something. It's basically his default expression, and as he's wearing his, it only seems fitting that she wear hers, too. So she puts on her very best frown— the one that's all the more intimidating because you'd think someone with pink eyes would be perpetually cheerful, right?— and says, "I told you that if you kept following me I'd tell my team about you."

"Psh, what are they gonna do; beat me up?" He laughs like it's an inside joke of theirs, even though her eyes say, _Yes, that is _exactly_ what they'll do._ "I'm pretty sure I don't have to worry about your team. I've been told I can run pretty fast." His eyes light up and he asks, "Ooh, do you wanna race?"

She rolls her eyes. But Bingham Brothers isn't going to watch itself, and she turns her attention back to the store. "No, I don't want to race."

An annoyed grunt. "Why not?"

She swears, if she hangs around him much more her eyes are going to roll up to her forehead and _stay_ there.

"I'm kind of busy at the moment." Rearranging herself to keep her muscles from getting stiff, she adds, "If you're not going to leave me alone, at least keep quiet."

And to his credit, he does. He stays quiet for so long, in fact, that she can almost forget that he's there. Can almost tune out the sound of his breathing. Can almost concentrate on the jewelry store, rather than on the redheaded speedster who is not her friend and not her enemy and certainly not anything else.

Her guard has all but crumbled when suddenly she feels his breath on her cheek and his warm torso against her side. There is a reason she keeps her guard up all the time, she thinks, but it's too late for that now because his arm is already around her back, pinning her between the wall on one side and him on the other. His hand rests lightly on the wall. She could break his wrist in a heartbeat. She doesn't.

"Don't hate me," he whispers, and if his voice were any softer it would be swallowed by the wind. He's standing so close to her that his nose brushes the side of her face, and she thinks her skin must be freezing. "I'm not going to try to change you. I just want to be around you. I'll leave you alone if you want." He pauses. She can feel his heart beating against her back, and she wonders if he is going to try to kiss her. "But only if you really want me to."

She is suddenly cold, and it takes her a moment to realize it's because he's gone. She doesn't bother to look for him. He's probably on the other side of the city by now. A sigh escapes her lips, and she leans forward onto the wall, rubbing the space between her eye and hairline. Headaches are coming fast and hard these days. She doesn't wonder why.

The alarm is so shrill it makes her cringe, not the least because she hasn't been paying attention to Bingham Brothers for the past, oh, _forever._ There's a street light below her, and she jumps to it and then to the ground without a second thought. Nodding to her teammates and grabbing jewelry that's fallen on the ground and kicking her opponents in the stomach are welcome actions, and she thinks she's in pretty good form today. But the whole routine is so just that— routine— that it's hardly what she needs to take her mind off what happened on the roof. When the alarm finally stops wailing and the opposition is no longer a worry her eyes wander up and across the street, falling where his hands sat next to hers on the wall. A diamond necklace dangles casually from her sweaty hand, cool and rough against her fingers.

"Jinx!" It takes her a moment to match the voice to a name, so her head swivels slowly before spinning to meet her teammate, jogging towards her with a grin. "Nice work."

"Thanks," she says. A beat passes. "Oh. Here." Thrusting her arm out, she deposits the necklace into his hand. It coils into a small heap on his palm, and he wraps his gloved hand around it protectively.

"Thanks," Robin says. "You can give anything else that ended up out here to Captain Spitzer. The police want to take an inventory of everything before they clear out." Jinx nods distractedly and Robin turns back towards the store.

A police car is parked in front of the lamppost that served as her stepping stone earlier. Two men sit cuffed and waiting in the backseat. A third guy is being questioned by a policewoman, the backseat of another police car empty and waiting for him. Jinx does a double take when she realizes that this third guy has red hair, but he also has the beginnings of a beard and a tattoo on his arm and even from over here she can tell that his voice is too deep and gravelly. Her jaw has clenched of its own accord, and she relaxes it. It's not him. It's not him.

God. She's so sick of worrying every time she responds to an alarm that it's going to be _him._

Now that the sting is over, there's not a whole lot for her to do. Robin and Raven are talking to the police, Cyborg is discussing better safety measures with the store's owner, and Starfire and Beast Boy are giving animated interviews to the reporters who always show up at the tail end of a fight. The jewelry has all been collected, clean up is being handled by some city workers, and it's that point after a fight has ended and before they head home in which she never knows what to do with herself. She walks up to the jewelry store, careful to step around the broken glass on the ground, and leans her back against the storefront. Across the way, the rooftop stands empty. It looks cold up there. A gust of wind brushes against her cheek. It does and does not feel like his breath.

She closes her eyes and pretends that her cheek and his breath are the only things in the world that are real.

* * *


End file.
